Top Comments: the Football Fallen Faces edition

Some shocked college football fans of the past (as we enter peak bowl season) after the jump ….

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Now that the college bowl season is about to reach its crescendo: over the years, there have been several college football games that have ended surprisingly and dramatically — and three involved traditional rivalry games, where the sting of losing to your arch rivals makes defeat much worse. Now in recent years, add to that the proliferation of TV cameras … and your crestfallen face may show up on television. Let’s have a look at those three contests.

“Fallen faces … by the wayside … it looked as if .. they might have known”

From Theme for an Imaginary Western— written by Jack Bruce/Pete Brown (1969)

The first of which is the most wackiest ending: the “Big Game” between Bay Area rivals Stanford at UC-Berkeley (Cal) in 1982. Thirty-five years later, “The Play” remains as controversial as ever … but unlike the two that follow, (a) it did not have national title implications, and (b) there was only one camera following the action, so there were no real fan reactions … but a memorable still photo.

Stanford (led by future Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway) had just taken a 20-19 lead with only four seconds to play. Stanford was penalized for excessive celebrations — (critically) resulting in their being forced to kick-off from their 25 yard-line (rather than their 40). And thus: a squib kick only reached the Cal 45. 

What resulted was Cal resorting to lateral the ball before being tackled .. and after the second lateral, Cal’s Dwight Garner was gang-tackled by five Stanford players … but before he went down, he was able to lateral it to a teammate. And here is what makes the finish so bizarre: mistakenly believing the referees had whistled the play dead: several Stanford players ran onto the field in celebration and the Stanford Marching Band came on, as well. The play continued and after the fifth lateral, Cal’s Kevin Moen ran into the end zone. In case you’ve not seen this, listen to a (truncated) version of Cal announcer Joe Starkey’s frantic famous call:

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The referees got together, and referee Charlie Moffett tells what they discussed:

"I called all the officials together and there were some pale faces. The penalty flags were against Stanford for coming onto the field. I say, did anybody blow a whistle? They say no. I say, were all the laterals legal. Yes. Then the line judge (Gordon Riese) says to me, "Charlie, the guy scored on that.' And I said, "What?' I had no idea the guy had scored.

"Actually when I heard that I was kind of relieved. I thought we really would have had a problem if they hadn't scored, because, by the rules, we could have awarded a touchdown (to Cal) for (Stanford) players coming onto the field. I didn't want to have to make that call.

"The (other officials) were shook. So I say, "I can't believe it happened, but we got to make a decision here. We got a touchdown. Anybody disagree with a touchdown?' No one did.

"So I say, "Here we go.'   I wasn't nervous at all when I stepped out to make the call; maybe I was too dumb. Gee, it seems like it was yesterday. Anyway, when I stepped out of the crowd, there was dead silence in the place. Then when I raised my arms, I thought I had started World War III — like an atomic bomb had gone off."

There are endless debates as to whether (a) all of the laterals were legal, and (b) whether Dwight Garner had been tackled. There has never been complete agreement, and instant replays were inconclusive — yet Stanford (and John Elway) were bitter for many years. Fortunately, there are no crestfallen faces on the film …. and there is one genuinely funny outcome.

When Kevin Moen carried the ball into the end zone, he knocked-down a trombone player in the Stanford band, Gary Tyrrell. Some Cal students later had t-shirts of “The Play” made up … with a red “X” through a trombone. Wonderfully, the two remain friends to this day (Tyrrell jokes, “Kevin, you’ll have to hit harder than that … to keep me down” ) …. and that trombone is in the College Football Hall of Fame.

    Gary Tyrrell (w/Kevin Moen’s leg)

In 2013, there was a rivalry game that did have (a) national title implications and (b) in this modern era, there were numerous cameras to capture the images.

In-state rivals Alabama and Auburn play their annual “Iron Bowl” game, yet the game may have ended more conventionally …. had a ruling on the last play of the game not been overturned, and led to a new final play …. for-the-ages.

With the score tied at 28-28, #1-ranked Alabama drove down the field, with an Alabama player advancing down to the Auburn 38 before running out-of-bounds (to stop the clock) … unsuccessfully, as the clock ran out. Overtime loomed ahead.

Except that …. Alabama coach Nick Saban (who received 264 of the write-in votes for the Senate race, rather than vote for Roy Moore) successfully challenged the play, and one second was put back on the clock. Enough to attempt a long (57-yard) game-winning field goal. The result?

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The “Kick Six” , as this 109-yard return for the game-winning touchdown became known as, knocked Alabama out of the running for a 3rd straight national title — and had Nick Saban’s challenge not been upheld: it is possible that Alabama could have won in overtime. That is why there were some hands-on-the-head photos of Alabama fans: one fan identified, unsure if the second one was publicly named.

Crawford Rogers stunned

Unsure if this fellow was ever named

Finally, we move to 2015 … and while Ohio State is traditionally the University of Michigan’s primary rival (as far as the rest of the country is concerned) its annual match against in-state rival Michigan State is huge within the state, with the Paul Bunyan trophy at stake. And this game shown on ESPN had national championship implications, with Michigan ranked #12 and Michigan State #7.

With 10 seconds left to go, Michigan had a two-point lead, and faced fourth down at midfield. Michigan State placed all eleven players at the line of scrimmage - so, all Michigan needed was to punt the ball successfully: even a poor kick would probably roll around and run-out the clock. Then, as Sean McDonough called it:

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Sean McDonough says that he still hears from people citing his frenzied call … which he is a bit sheepish about, yet says moments like that can’t be foreseen.

This 27-23 win catapulted Michigan State into the college football playoff series …. with four people of note.

The fellow who scored the winning touchdown was tackled hard by a Michigan player (and landing on his hip) …. which was exacerbated by his team mates piling on him in celebration. The result? Jalen Watts-Jackson suffered a season-ending injury: a dislocated and fractured hip. Yet he said …. he’d do it all over again.

   Michigan State freshman Jalen Watts-Jackson

On the play, the punter was given a low snap by the center … and while it might have been possible to get the kick off with the large rush, there was also another alternative: simply fall on the ball, and thus turn it over to Michigan State —  but with the ball close to midfield and time for only one more play.

Alas, the fumble by Blake O’Neill initially resulted in some Twitter death threats … and a few made reference to his being from Australia (cue the xenophobia).

Yet O’Neill handled the post-game press conference with dignity … and earlier this year, he said the outpouring of support he received … including some schoolchildren drawing pictures to send for him.

Blake O’Neill after the game

There were also two University of Michigan students who were caught-on-camera with the telltale hands-on-hand bewilderment: one was Chris Baldwin (who appears first in the video). He left the stadium 15 minutes after the bizarre ending … only to find that his phone had been going off, and saw his image on Twitter and Facebook. A year later in 2016, he still had people approach him (and he politely posed for every photo request). He added that he has done several TV interviews and was flown to Atlanta for that year’s College Football Awards.

Chris Baldwin: new TV star

So far, this essay has focused all about men …. so we should include another Michigan fan, Victoria Norris … whose image below was used on several social media memes, such as “Partied all weekend, forgot to study for the midterm”. As her image appeared later in the video, she did not become as famous, but did say that she saw a Halloween costume of herself — amusing, given that is from a sports-minded family and was a goalkeeper for Michigan’s club soccer team.

Victoria Norris: new TV star

Hopefully, those caught on camera have enjoyed some fame and perhaps even some fun along the way. Because in the end, as the NPR sports program title tells us, it’s Only a Game. Let’s close with the “fallen faces by the wayside” song … and feel free to raise a glass for Doug Jones tonight.

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Now, on to Top Comments:

From pixxer1:

In the film review by Homer J about the release of The Post— a comment by A DC Wonk — while overall admiring the film — lays out some omissions or missed emphases that we all should remember.

And from Ed Tracey, your faithful correspondent this evening ........

In the front-page story about today’s election certification of Doug Jones —  a sage warning about purity tests was made by Cali Scribe ….. and then, Alabama resident TJoz indulges in some well-deserved home-state pride. 

TOP PHOTOS December 27th, 2017 Next - enjoy jotter's wonderful *PictureQuilt™* below. Just click on the picture and it will magically take you to the comment that features that photo. (NOTE: Any missing images in the Quilt were removed because (a) they were from an unapproved source that somehow snuck through in the comments, or (b) it was an image from the DailyKos Image Library which didn't have permissions set to allow others to use it.)

And lastly: yesterday's Top Mojo - mega-mojo to the intrepid mik ...... who rescued this feature from oblivion:

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