posted on Feb, 6 2005 @ 09:37 AM
my pick is garo yepremians passing attempt, the tie salesman from cyprus threw what was probably the worst pass in football history, any lebel of
football
The 10 worst Super Bowl moments
Kevin Hench / FOXSports.com
Is there any pressure in sports more intense than the one-game, winner-take-all, the-whole-world-is-watching crock pot that is the Super Bowl?
Some players — Bradshaw, Montana, Brady — thrive in the pressure cooker, but many crumble. Heck, some crack before the game even starts.
Of course, most terrible Super Bowl moments — dropped passes, blown kicks — aren't so bad for the team that's the beneficiary of the ineptitude.
Patriots fans wouldn't think John Kasay's duck hook on the game's final kickoff last year was all that bad. So I guess ugly is also in the eye of the
beholder.
With that in mind, here are the 10 worst moments in Super Bowl history:
10. The Fridge scores, Sweetness doesn't — This was a disgrace. Instead of rewarding the greatest player in franchise history — and maybe NFL
history — with a one-yard TD, coach Mike Ditka went for the novelty act. That's right, in a 46-10 laugher, both William Perry and Henry Waechter
scored (a safety for the game's final points), but Walter Payton didn't. A crime.
9. Barrett Robbins chases the dragon to Tijuana — As we would learn just recently, this was a relatively tame night for Robbins; no cops were beaten
up and no one got shot. With hundreds of thousands of people descending on a city to worship his players, I have no idea how a coach gets everyone to
the game on time and in uniform for kickoff. Think about it: During Super Bowl week, even the long snapper is a major celebrity. With so many
tailfeathers being shaken in their direction, I wouldn't be surprised if one of these years an entire defensive line goes missing. While Robbins'
hospitalization for depression was sad, it may have been less pitiable than his Raiders teammates' performance in a 48-21 loss to the Buccaneers in
January 2003.
8. John Kasay misses the field — In one horrible spastic moment Kasay undid an incredible fourth-quarter comeback by the Carolina Panthers in Super
Bowl XXXVIII. After the Panthers rallied from an 11-point deficit to tie the game against a Patriots defense that had looked impregnable for much of
the game, Kasay shanked the ensuing kickoff so spectacularly that the television cameras had trouble finding the ball. The Pats took over at their 40.
Tom Brady ... Deion Branch ... Adam Vinatieri ... yada, yada, yada.
7. Leon Lett on the loose — This was ugly on so many levels. First, with the world watching, Lett gave a shining example for the kids out there of
how to further humiliate your vanquished opponents by basically dancing on their grave when he started strutting as he raced toward the end zone with
a long fumble return in Super Bowl XXVII. Second, Lett's lineman's dream turned into a nightmare when Don Beebe knocked the ball out of his hand and
swiped the mustard off the hotdog. And third, and perhaps most disturbing of all, the final would have been 59-17 had Lett just put his head down and
run.
6. Eugene Robinson's "blown coverage" — Talk about a rough 24 hours. Jack Bauer couldn't have survived this. First, Robinson gets pinched by an
undercover cop for soliciting oral sex on the eve of Super Bowl XXXIII. Then, with all eyes on him, he lets Rod Smith blow by him for an 80-yard
touchdown. The game couldn't end quickly enough for Robinson, whose remarkable 16-year career will forever be overshadowed by this one episode of
questionable judgment. I say questionable because I don't know what the cop looked like. Maybe you had to be there to fully appreciate how easily this
could happen.
5. Garo Yepremian's "TD pass" — If anyone wonders how kickers became the totally isolated pariahs they are today, they need look no further than
video of Yepremian's Super Bowl VII panic attack. No athlete has ever so nakedly expressed such sheer terror in the heat of battle. Yepremian's
don't-kill-me, hot-potato gift to Mike Bass gave the Redskins their only touchdown. Had this cost the Dolphins the game and their undefeated season,
it would have to be the worst moment in Super Bowl and sports history.
4. Stanley Wilson's coke binge — While Wilson did not get busted by an undercover policewoman, he did run into trouble with the "white lady."
Wilson's coc aine binge on the eve of Super Bowl XXIII ranks worse than Robbins' Tijuana bender simply because it could be argued that his
absence cost the Bengals the game. Without Wilson, their starting fullback, the Bengals were unable to score a single offensive touchdown in their
20-16 loss.
3. Tim Krumrie breaks leg in Super Bowl XXIII — While Stanley Wilson snapped on the eve of the Big Game, Krumrie's leg snapped during it. This would
be the Godfather of Gruesome if not for Joe Theismann. Unlike Theismann cringe-inducing broken leg on Monday Night Football, however, Krumrie's leg
actually flopped around for awhile like a fish on a dock. If you played video of the two snapped tib-fibs incidents for people who had never seen
either play, I'd bet more people would throw up at the sight of Krumie's.
2. Jackie Smith drops TD pass — Who knows what might have been? The Cowboys were driving for the tying score when Roger Staubach found a wide-open
Smith in the middle of the end zone. The ball hit Smith in the breadbasket but he couldn't hold on. After the agonizing drop, Smith flopped around on
the ground like Tim Krumrie's broken leg. The drop even elicited a rare show of emotion from Staubach, who put his hands to his helmet in complete
bewilderment at the colossal gaffe. The Cowboys settled for a field goal and the lost the game by four points, 35-31.
1. Norwood, no good — It's still the only last-minute, game-winning field goal attempt that's ever been missed. Jim O'Brien and Adam Vinatieri and
... Adam Vinatieri all made theirs. And those three kicks all came with the score tied. But not only did poor Scott Norwood miss wide right, but his
team trailed by one, meaning the miss was the difference between winning and losing, not between winning and OT as with the others.
The important thing, though, is that coach Marv Levy's crazily conservative play-calling that left Norwood with a 47-yard attempt has served as an
object lesson for other NFL coaches.
Except apparently for Marty Schottenheimer and Herm Edwards who both got bounced from this year's playoffs by doing the exact same thing