Immaculate Reception the play
Fans have spoken, and the Immaculate Reception is their pick for the greatest moment of the NFL’s first 100 years.
The NFL announced the results of fan voting Sunday before the Super Bowl, choosing the pass from Terry Bradshaw that Franco Harris scooped up at Three Rivers Stadium and took for a 60-yard touchdown in a 137 win against the Raiders in an AFC divisional game Dec. 23, 1972.
Voting started in July with fans picking the best moment for each team, and the 32 moments were pared down before fans finally ranked the final four as part of the league’s centennial celebration.
The victory by the Immaculate Reception beat out the Helmet Catch by David Tyree off a pass from Eli Manning in the 2008 Super Bowl as the Giants denied New England both perfection at 19-0 and the Lombardi Trophy. Dwight Clark’s reception in the final minute of the 1981 NFC championship game at Candlestick Park best known as “The Catch” ranked third with Miami’s perfect season in 1972 fourth.
To celebrate the Immaculate Reception’s victory, Bradshaw and Harris, now both members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, teamed up to reenact the moment during the Super Bowl pregame show on Fox.
“We put the ball in Terry’s hands, and the rest is history,” Harris said.
Bradshaw quipped: “You got to know how to make it bounce baby!”
Celebrating veterans
Not only is the NFL celebrating 100 years of football, the league also invited four veterans of World War II who are all 100 years old to take part in the coin toss. Charles McGee, a member of the famed Tuskegee Airmen, flew 136 combat missions in World War II.
He became a colonel who later flew in wars in Korea and Vietnam. He walked out with referee Bill Vinovich who handled the toss of the actual coin.
McGee was joined by a trio of other centenarian World War II veterans: Staff Sergeant Odon Cardenas, Lt. Col. Samuel Lombardo, Corporal Sidney Walton.
Honoring Kobe
San Francisco’s Richard Sherman showed up for the Super Bowl in a Kobe Bryant jersey, the start of numerous honors dedicated to the basketball legend. Players from Kansas City and San Francisco lined up on their respective 24-yard lines for a moment of silence to commemorate all nine victims of last weekend’s helicopter crash, including Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna. Fans wore Lakers jerseys, and a few even had Bryant’s Lower Merion High School jersey.
As an announcement for a moment of silence was being made, two of the stadium’s four video screens showed an image of Bryant and the names of the other eight victims of the crash. Two other screens showed an image of longtime Vikings star, Pro Football Hall of Famer, and Pitt Panther Chris Doleman, who also died last week.