As pointed out earlier today by our good friend Dan Patrick (and were not just saying that because yours truly will be appearing on his show tomorrow at 9:20 a.m. EST . . . but then again that didnt hurt), it was 36 years ago today that the Steelers defeated the Raiders in the divisional playoffs via the so-called Immaculate Reception.
I can vividly recall my parents (once again, I am old) inviting a bunch of neighbors over to the house to watch the game, and the guy from across the street moving the green chair in which none of the residents of the residence were allowed to ever place their rear ends directly in front of the 25-inch Zenith console unit with the plastic wood that had a black melty spot on the right edge from the time my father had once put a cigarette while fixing the cable connection via the adapter with the two sets of prongs screwed into the back of the set.
OK, what was I talking about? Oh yeah, Immaculate Reception.
They all whooped and hollered and spilled stuff on the shaggish carpet as Franco Harris grabbed the ball that bounced off Jack Tatum and/or Frenchy Fuqua and ran it in for the game-winning touchdown. (I cannot disclose whether I whooped, hollered, or spilled stuff on the shaggish carpet, in order to maintain my reputation for hating all teams equally.)
Anyway, Dan raised an intriguing queston on Tuesdays show what would have happened if the league was using replay review at the time?
Under the rules that existed in 1972, a player on offense could not catch a ball that first touched another player on offense, unless the ball was then touched by a player on defense. So if the ball didnt touch Tatum, Harris would not have been permitted to catch the ball, or to advance it. (That provision was dumped later in the decade, as part of the effort to inject more scoring into the game.)
Our take? There wasnt sufficient indisputable visual evidence to overturn the call on the field of a valid reception. We also think there wouldnt have been indisputable visual evidence to overturn the opposite call, if the opposite call had been made.
This assumes, of course, that the referee would have applied that standard, instead of substituting his own judgment for the ruling that previously had been made. (See Coleman, Walt.)
That said, theres still a belief that referee Fred Swearingen consulted with Art McNally (the Mike Pereira of the era), and that the call was finalized with the aid of television replays. Many Raiders still believe that Tatum never touched the ball; Fuqua has opted to keep the truth an immaculate secret.
Anyway, heres the video. Feel free to post your own memories (if you, too, are old) and your position on whether it was a good call.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07zsdF0ysP0
