I realized it's probably about time I got back on this particular horse. #5 actually doesn't involve the Seattle Seahawks...well, at least not directly.
Let's go back to November 29, 1998, in Foxboro, MA. Doug Flutie has made his return to Foxboro Stadium after years in Canada, but this time he's playing for the visiting team, the Buffalo Bills. Flutie had what looked to be a triumphant return, passing for 339 yards and rushing for 30 more, and staking his team to a 21-17 lead with just over a minute remaining.
Then Drew Bledsoe went to work (this was Drew Bledsoe before years of bad decisions and hard hits from holding on to the football for too long turned him into Zombie Drew Bledsoe), with a broken finger no less. He drove the Patriots into Bills territory, where the drive stalled a bit. Facing 4th down, Drew completed a pass to Shawn Jefferson at the Bill 26, and Jefferson got out of bounds with time for just one more play. The Bills were not happy, as they felt Jefferson was out of bounds BEFORE he caught the ball on the play, which should have negated the catch and won the game for the Bills. The referees disagreed, and the Bills (the year being 1998) had no recourse (this would be dramatic foreshadowing).
Anyway, one play left, from the Bill 26 yard line. Bledsoe drops back, waits, then launches a pass for Terry Glenn in the back left corner of the end zone. There is some jostling, maybe a shove, but the pass falls incomplete as time expires. Bills win! Flutie is successful, and strikes a blow for short, Heisman-winning quarterbacks everywhe...what?
There's a flag on the field?
Oh, okay, I'm sure it was back by Bledsoe and was offensive holding or something, so let's get back to the celebra...wait...it's in the END ZONE? Are you sure? I mean, officials NEVER call a foul on a hail mary type pass unless the defense rips off the wide receiver's leg or stabs him through the heart, or something like that. (Note: Given the long career of Terry Glenn, highlights including being suspended for basically all of the Pats' Super Bowl winning 2001 season and fumbling away a ball for a safety in one of my favorite playoff games of all time, despite a lack of video evidence, I feel safe declaring Glenn's leg is still attached and thus, was not ripped off on this play; nor was he killed wth a knife through the heart.) Besides, the receiver in question is Terry Glenn. As a rookie, when asked how he was rehabbing from a bad hammy, his own coach Bill Parcells responded, "She's doing fine." Clearly, if you breathe on Terry Glenn, he's going to fall over. This clearly isn't a flag for defensive pass interference.
Yes, the flag was for defensive pass interference. It's at this point I'd normally embed a video of this outrageous decision, but I cannot find one, which is part of the reason this post took so long to write. Anyway, this call gave New England one untimed down at the 1 yard line. The play was a play action pass which ended with Bledose hitting tight end Ben Coates for the touchdown.
The Bills were so incensed with this turn of events, and so disgusted with the officials over the Jefferson catch and the phantom PI call, that their coach (disclaimer, it was Wade Phillips) declined to put out 11 players to defend the point after this touchdown. In fact, he neglected to put 1 defender on the field for the PAT. The Patriots' reaction? Instead of having kicker Adam Vinatieri kick the PAT for a 24-21 win, the holder handed him the ball and Vinatieri ran the ball in to the end zone, for a 25-21 win.
Now, to be honest, I cannot comment on whether Jefferson was in or out. But I can safely say the PI call was horrid. When I first saw this game, I thought the call was terrible, but it benefitted the Patriots and most of my friends were Pats fans, so I wasn't too upset. It did hurt Doug Flutie, who I pulled for, so that stunk. But overall, there were plenty of worse things that could have happened.
Anti-Quality of call: 8/10
Effect on game situation: 9/10
Effect on my mood: 2/10
It was only later, after a far more catastrophic set of circumstances occurred, that this game would take it's place on this list. For the rest of the story, well, you'll just have to wait till we get a little higher on this list.
No comments:
Post a Comment