My friends, I give you: down and almost out, 22 seconds left on the clock, fourth and forever from the end zone -- and a playoff miracle that gives birth to a dynasty: The Immaculate Reception...!
Had the Steelers gone on to win the Super Bowl that year I would agree with you...
Well, the fact that the Steelers didn't win the championship that year (they ran into the '72 Dolphins -- the only NFL team to go undefeated through the entire season -- in the AFC championship game) doesn't diminish the moment. If we hinged great sports moments on whether or not the team went on to win a championship, we'd have to eliminate probably 90% of them... Remember: the American ice hockey team's defeat of the Soviets in Lake Placid
wasn't the gold medal game; that followed, and my recollection of the country's attitude about the gold medal game was that it was almost post-climactic... Even if the Americans hadn't won gold at the 1980 Olympics (after beating the Russians, they were guaranteed at least silver), the "Miracle On Ice" would still have still been great...
The "Immaculate Reception" had all of the same qualities: dramatic, unique -- and miraculous. It gave rise to one of the greatest football dynasties ever that went on to win four Super Bowls in rapid fashion. But don't take my word for it:
here are several people saying the same thing -- to the point of even openly questioning the low #5 ranking by NFL Sports...
And then there is the lingering controversy surrounding it too. Raiders fans will always say two things: (1) the ball hit "Frenchy" Fuqua before Franco Harris caught it -- which under the NFL's rules at the time, made it an incomplete pass; and/or (2) Harris caught the ball after it hit the ground. Both claims have since been refuted, but Raiders fans still won't have it...
Because of the way the ball caromed, simply physics (based on the direction that the players were moving at the time of the deflection) dictates that it could
not have ricocheted off of Fuqua. Fuqua was moving diagonally across the field, basically in the direction of the Raiders' end zone; if the ball had hit Fuqua first, it would have probably hit him in the back or shoulder and caromed weakly to the ground. And it
certainly could not have traveled 10 yards back up the field to where Harris was. However, Jack Tatum, the Raiders' DB, was moving directly back toward the line of scrimmage; and true to his reputation, he was more intent on creaming Fuqua than making an easy interception -- so he was building up a full head of steam in the process. It's only when the ball hits
him that it becomes possible for the ball to reverse direction back up the field and into Harris' hands. Therefore, the ball came off of Tatum -- and under the NFL's rules, was live. The original camera angle pretty-well supports all of that too, where it's plain that the ball reaches Tatum just a split-second before he hits Fuqua (stop the footage in the above-supplied link at 1:52; the ball can be seen
on Tatum's shoulder pad, on the far side of Fuqua's helmet). So the claim that the ball came off of Fuqua was, frankly, spurious from the start.
And the additional film footage shot from the end zone (behind the play) pretty clearly shows Harris catching the ball in the air (albeit at his shoe strings).
To Steelers fans, it's all sour grapes on the part of Raiders fans... But fans of both franchises will argue about it until time stops...
