Forty Years Ago Today... the Immaculate Reception

[Tico Rick]

Because it deserves it's own thread.

I remember listening to the game on the radio as a fifteen-year old. After Kenny Stabler scored I was thinking, how can this happen? How can we lose after playing so well? If the football gods are just, this can't end this way. And then it happened:



My dad went to the game but, like Art Rooney, didn't see the play.

[skullman80]

I love how people around here act like they saw it on TV live, when the game was blacked out locally in the Pittsburgh area.

I get the importance I guess, but maybe since I didn't live through it, it makes me not care as much.

[ajh2298]

Ball hit the ground, I love how the greatest play in sports history is a lie. Wouldn't expect any thing less from Free Meal Franco.

[penny lane]

Ball hit the ground, I love how the greatest play in sports history is a lie. Wouldn't expect any thing less from Free Meal Franco.

You've got pics~ trust me, john madden would have done all to put the proof in the media hands.
Franco was a fine football player and running back.

[Tico Rick]

I can see how someone can argue that the ball hit Fuqua rather than Tatum, but I don't see how anyone can argue that the ball hit the ground.

[FreeCandy44]

As any native younger pittsburgher knows...the 70s Steelers have been shoved down our throats. This play is still cool though and belongs with all the other amazing plays in the history of sports.

[tifosi77]

I get the importance I guess, but maybe since I didn't live through it, it makes me not care as much.

The Steelers franchise was born in 1933. They played their first playoff game (a loss) against the Eagles in 1947. They played their second ever playoff game* December 23, 1972 -- a 13-7 home win over the Oakland Raiders. The importance of that play cannot be overstated. Just can't.








* The 'Playoff Bowl' does not count.

I can see how someone can argue that the ball hit Fuqua rather than Tatum, but I don't see how anyone can argue that the ball hit the ground.

Yeah, I get the 'one touch' arguments and the concern over the 15-minute delay between the score and the actual signal from the officials. But there's no way that ball touched the ground.

[penny lane]

Typically, Franco wasn't even around to see this fish start to swell.
He went straight to the airport, heading home for Christmas.
"I wonder if he took the bus to the airport," said Gordon.
What?
"Seriously, he used to ride the bus from East Liberty to practice when he was a rookie. The Port Authority eventually gave him a bus pass."
Franco flew to Philadelphia, then went straight to the house in Mount Holly.
"Just kind of enjoyed the peace and quiet of my mother and father's house," he remembers. "Just relaxing with my younger brothers. I came back the day after Christmas, but while I was there I never saw a paper or anything about the play on television. But I remember sitting there that night thinking, 'I wonder what's going on in Pittsburgh?' "

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/spo ... z2FtheAbTC

[offsides]

I love how people around here act like they saw it on TV live, when the game was blacked out locally in the Pittsburgh area.

I get the importance I guess, but maybe since I didn't live through it, it makes me not care as much.

Me two cases of beer and three friends drove to Ohio and rented a motel room to watch the game. The whole motel was full of Steeler fans and the whole place went absolutely nuts after the catch.

[columbia]

I love how people around here act like they saw it on TV live, when the game was blacked out locally in the Pittsburgh area.

I get the importance I guess, but maybe since I didn't live through it, it makes me not care as much.

Hah.

Visiting my parents now and just asked my father about it. He had to listen to it on radio.

[pensfan1989]

I've picked things up off the ground too. I should get my own day.

[CERV96]

[viva la ben]

Not gonna lie, 40 years ago was the best day of my life.

[Froggy]

Not gonna lie, 40 years ago was the best day of my life.

Haha... All down hill from there?

[pittsports87]

People really call it the greatest play in sports? Didn't know a play that had an illegal reception would be the greatest (the ball definitely hit only Fuqua). Still have never seen a good replay that shows if he even caught the ball.

David Tyree's catch in the Super Bowl >>>> The Immaculate Reception

[Froggy]

[ulf]

haters gon hate

[tifosi77]

People really call it the greatest play in sports? Didn't know a play that had an illegal reception would be the greatest (the ball definitely hit only Fuqua). Still have never seen a good replay that shows if he even caught the ball.

David Tyree's catch in the Super Bowl >>>> The Immaculate Reception

There's clear video evidence of the ball being on Fuqua's left side - i.e. beyond him - for a frame or two before ricocheting backwards. So it either hit Tatum, or the ball was self-aware and made the conscious decision to reverse its own flight path with a force commensurate with a hit by something moving towards the ball (like, say, a safety) and completely disproportionate to the amount of force imparted by contact with something roughly perpendicular to the ball's flight path (like, say, a running back).

I can understand complaining about the 15-minute delay between the score and the official signal. But it was a legal catch, and Raiders fans need to stop whining about it.

[Kaizer]

there are at least 10 plays just in the super bowl better than Tyree's catch.

[ulf]

I think there could be a good argument made for Santonio Holmes' catch being the greatest play in Super Bowl history.

[pittsports87]

Tyree's catch is miles ahead of Holmes as well. It isn't just the play Tyree made, it was the situation the play happened in and Manning's will to break away from the defender grabbing onto his jersey to making a throw where Tyree made an amazing catch. No clue how Tyree even caught that, 99 times out of 100 that ball is dropped.

Holmes catch was nice and very important with the situation but that kind of catch/play happens all the time, probably at least 10 times a season (not the same situation though).

[Sam's Drunk Dog]

The Giants oline were clearly holding during Tyree's catch. That play should have been called back. So that play was also illegal. Also that play wasn't even for a touchdown.

[Dickie Dunn]

Harrison's interception return pretty much owns all of them.

[ExPatriatePen]

[steelhammer]

Here is a much better angle of the play (at the 40 second mark). Notice the direction that Raider player is moving in (particularly his hands), the direction of the Steeler player, and the direction that the ball takes. Based on the trajectory of the ball after the deflection, it is literally impossible that the Steeler receiver could have touched the ball.