1985 Handsworth riots 1500 police officers drafted into the area, about 45 shops looted and burnt, and a trail of damage running into hundreds of thousands of pounds. As well as racial tension, unemployment was seen as a major factor in the riots; by the time of the riots, fewer than 5% of the black population to have left school that summer had found employment. The riots were the first of a series of similar riots across the country during the autumn of 1985, notably the Broadwater Farm riot in London which also resulted in a fatality (the murder of policeman Keith Blakelock).
What It Was, Was Football from the "Totally MAD" CD-ROM collection of the magazine's run. In 1987, Andy Griffith made an appearance on "The Tonight Show" promoting his series, "Matlock," in which he acted out the attorney Benjamin Layton Matlock, one of whose heroes was, presumably, Erle Stanley Gardner's Perry Mason. During the interview, guest host Bill Cosby told Griffith that he had purchased Griffith's recording of "What It Was, Was Football." Cosby then told Griffith that he had performed it at school and received an A for his grade, much to Griffith's surprise and delight. In 1997, the monologue was made into a short