1. Dude, where's my helmet?
To start the second of a record four-straight Super Bowl losses, Buffalo Bills tailback Thurman Thomas couldn't find his helmet.
Seriously.
And so he missed the first two plays of the game, both of which were runs.
The gaffe set the tone for a long night in Minneapolis for the Bills, and it ended with a 37-24 loss to the Redskins in Super Bowl 26.
It all turned out well in the end for Thomas; the embarrassing incident didn't keep him from making it to the Hall of Fame.
And if you're ever in Canton, you can see his bust there. Though none of the bronze sculptures include helmets, Thurman's gaffe gives his hatless head some added meaning.
2. What in the heck is a Garo?
The 1972 Miami Dolphins' perfect season nearly was marred by the unlikeliest of incidents in Super Bowl 7.
With a suffocating defense keeping the Redskins off the board for the entire game, Miami scored a touchdown late in the first quarter and a touchdown late in the second -- and through most of all four quarters kept Washington from putting a single point on the board.
Then, with less than three minutes remaining, the Dolphins lined up for a field goal attempt. The play went awry, and the ball ended up in the hands of a tiny kicker with a big name -- Garabed Sarkis Yepremian.
"Garo" decided to try to make like Bob Griese, and after what seemed like an eternity of bumbling and bobbling and bungling the football, it ended in the hands of Redskins defensive back Mike Bass, who returned the thing for a touchdown.
The play made the final score 14-7 and created the impression that the game was closer than it really was.
For that, the Fins can forever thank Garo.
3. Earl, my name is Jimmy
Late in the first half of Super Bowl 3 -- which still is widely regarded as the biggest upset in NFL history even after the 2007 Giants somehow toppled football's Goliaths -- the highly-favored Colts trailed by seven and called for a gadget play.
It was a flea flicker, during which halfback Tom Matte would take a handoff and flip the ball back to quarterback Earl Morrall.
The primary receiver was Jimmy Orr. If the Jets pounced on the run, Orr would be wide open.
As expected, the Jets bit. As expected, Orr was wide open.
As not expected, Morrall didn't see Orr.
The quarterback instead threw the ball into coverage, and it was intercepted.
Speculation as to the cause of the play that prevented the score from being tied at halftime ranges from Orr blending in with the Baltimore band to (per Colts defensive tackle Bubba Smith) suspicion that Morrall was trying to throw the game, either due to a large bet originating from Baltimore or an effort to ensure that the AFL-NFL merger would go through.
Regardless of the reason, it was a terrible moment for the Colts.
And a great one for the Jets, who won 16-7, and the AFL.
4. Cliff dooms the Cowboys
One of the more lasting images of the Super Bowls played in the 1970s comes from the 10th edition of the game.
After Steelers kicker Roy Gerela missed a field-goal attempt, Cowboys safety Cliff Harris congratulated Gerela with a pat on the helmet.
Steelers middle linebacker Jack Lambert -- who played special teams despite his value to the defense -- objected to the move, grabbing Harris and throwing him to the ground.
Though it's debatable that the moment sufficiently motivated the Steelers to win the game, Harris' bigger contribution to the Cowboys' loss came before the opening kickoff.
Steelers receiver Lynn Swann was listed as doubtful for the game due to a concussion that he suffered two weeks earlier in Pittsburgh's AFC title game victory over the Raiders.
Said Harris in the days leading up to Super Bowl 10: "I'm not going to hurt anyone intentionally. But getting hit again while he's running a pass route must be in the back of Swann's mind. I know it would be in the back of my mind."
Swann read what Harris had to say, and in that moment Swann decided he'd be on the field.
"He was trying to intimidate me," Swann said at the time. "He said I'd be afraid out there. He needn't worry. He doesn't know Lynn Swann. He can't scare me or the team. I said to myself, 'The hell with it, I'm gonna play.'"
Four catches, 161 yards, one touchdown, and three of the most memorable plays in Super Bowl history later, Swann ensured he'd get into the Hall of Fame based even on a full career of non-Hall of Fame numbers.
5. Here we go again
Before the Bills blew four chances to win a Super Bowl in four years, the Vikings accomplished the same feat over eight seasons.
The team's last trip to the title game came in 1977, against the Raiders, who were back for the first time in nearly a decade after knocking on the door nearly every year in between.
In their prior three trips to the Super Bowl, the Vikings had fallen behind early and never recovered.
The fourth time looked to be a charm, with the Vikes knocking on the door early in Super Bowl 11. But running back Brent McClanahan fumbled near the Oakland goal line.
And that was that.
By halftime, the Raiders led 16-0 and went on to win 32-14.
In 32 years since, the Vikings are still waiting for that chance to slide to 0-5.
6. The sickest man in America
As nausea-inducing moments in the Super Bowl go, it pretty much begins and ends with Jackie Smith of the Cowboys.
With Dallas trailing Pittsburgh by seven points in the third quarter of Super Bowl 13, quarterback Roger Staubauch saw Smith wide open in the end zone.
And so Staubach fired it to Smith. And it hit Smith in the hands.
And Smith dropped it. And the Cowboys lost 35-31.
Play-by-play announcer Verne Lundquist promptly dubbed Smith "the sickest man in America." (Of course, Jeffrey Dahmer was alive at the time, so Lundquist technically was incorrect.)
Thirty years later, Smith probably still thinks about it from time to time. It was, after all, the last pass ever thrown to him in his NFL career.
7. Joe Gibbs' darkest moment
In early 1984, the Redskins had an opportunity to win their second-straight Super Bowl.
But they trailed Los Angeles by 11 points, and the Redskins had the ball on their own 12 with 12 seconds to play in the first half.
In a similar circumstance while playing the Raiders during the regular season, a screen pass to shifty tailback Joe Washington resulted in a 67-yard gain.
So coach Joe Gibbs called for the same play this time around.
"I didn't want to run it," quarterback Joe Theismann said in 2004. "Joe [Gibbs] explained that we'd played the Raiders earlier that year and that it worked against them then, and I said, 'Don't you think they know that?' And he pointed at me and said, 'Run it.'"
So Theismann ran it. And when he threw the ball, Raiders linebacker Jack Squirek was ready for it because Los Angeles defensive coordinator Charlie Sumner remembered the screen pass to Washington.
Gibbs still did more than enough to earn his spot in the Hall of Fame. But that specific moment had nothing to do with it.
8. It's hard to be a genius, Part I
Late in Super Bowl 32, Green Bay coach Mike Holmgren decided to concede a touchdown to the Broncos, in order to give the Packers a chance to tie the game by ensuring Denver wouldn't bleed the clock.
But Holmgren made the decision with two timeouts in his pocket -- and under the mistaken assumption that he allowed the Broncos to score on a first-down play.
Instead, it was second down, and the Packers could have stopped the clock after each of the next two plays, if they had managed to keep the Denver offense out of the end zone.
Years after the game, former Packers GM Ron Wolf blamed the loss on much more than Holmgren's late-game blunder.
"One of the great things about playing the game of football is you have to adjust," Wolf said last year regarding Holmgren's failure to change the blocking schemes based on Denver's defensive attack. "When you fail to adjust in critical situations you're going to lose, and that's what happened here. To be pig-headed about it, I mean, to have the answer and then not apply it, that's a little different."
Though Wolf later apologized for his remarks, the point was made.
Even geniuses are prone to having a periodic bad day.
9. It's hard to be a genius, Part II
Four years after that very untimely lapse in Mike Holmgren's otherwise stellar coaching abilities, another coach named Mike was even more "pigheaded" in his plan to score points against a heavy underdog.
The Rams at the time fielded the "Greatest Show on Turf," featuring one of the best quick-strike passing games the NFL has ever seen.
Patriots coach Bill Belichick challenges great offenses by trying to take away what they do best, and thus the Pats were ready to take the air out of the passing game, even if it meant dropping eight men into coverage.
Martz stubbornly continued to throw, even though the running lanes were there.
Though, in the end, the Rams almost pulled it out to win Super Bowl 36 despite Martz's insistence on banging his brain-box into a brick wall, St. Louis could have and should have easily won the game, which would have been its second Super Bowl title in three years and could have been the birth of the first dynasty of the new century.
10. Tick, tick, tick
In November, a stunning admission from Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb regarding his belief that regular-season games can't end in a tie helped explain his lack of urgency in the overtime period against the Bengals.
He had no such excuse four years ago in Super Bowl 39, when he took his sweet time during the fourth quarter as the Eagles trailed the Patriots by 10 points.
In McNabb's defense, he was sick. So sick that, according to center Hank Fraley, at one point receiver Freddie Mitchell was calling the plays in the huddle.
McNabb denied he was sick, even though television cameras appeared to catch him demonstrating a very specific (and very gross) symptom of an upper digestive illness.
Regardless of whether McNabb was or wasn't under the weather, the great ones find a way to deliver when a rare opportunity for greatness arrives.
McNabb had what might end up being his only chance to do so, and he failed.
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Originally Posted by m!!!!76
