Former Oakland Raiders LB Phil Villapiano talks Franco Harris and the Immaculate Reception.
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- čas přidán 4. 12. 2020
- The Immaculate Reception play lives in NFL folklore as one of the greatest plays in league history. The play occurs during a 1972 AFC Divisional Playoff game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Oakland Raiders. This week our guest on Games People Play with Bernie Corbett is Raiders LB Phil Villapiano who was a major part of that classic moment in sports history. Phil brings a new fresh take on that memorable play along with discussing other memories from those fierce hard hitting Raiders teams of the 1970's.
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Franco Harris running was a thing of beauty.
Couldn’t see it, though. Screaming as I was cleaning my windows (always had my daughter on my hip). Cable went down and I lost my reception, but not the voice. Always a Steelers fan. HERE WE GO STEELERS HERE WE GO.”
i liked his hip pads😁
You got to love Phil Villapiano...... He played with such passion and guts and I totally forgot he was on the field for the immaculate reception!!
So here's a little tidbit that a lot of people may not know....... kenny Pickett and Phill villapiano went to the same high School...........👍👍👍
RIP Franco Harris you will be missed
Pho is such a great guy and a badass raider you cant help but love that guy.
Phil Villapiano is always a good interview
I love Phil "Foo" Villapiano a terrific story teller of the game. And I'm a die hard Steelers fan lol
he said Franco trapped the ball in this video. In the ESPn 30 for 30 he said Franco definitely caught it.
Agreed, no one tells a story better than Phil.
One of the funniest guys on a very colorful team
I've heard him be very angry in interviews when talking about the Steelers on any subject. He boasted on his Super Bowl ring, they had it engraved 24-7. The score of the Conference Championship game the Steelers and Raiders played to get to the Super Bowl. He is quoted that's how much we hated the Steelers, to engrave the score on the Super Bowl ring
@@chicken_953 all true but time softens warriors. And that's what the 70s Steelers and Raiders teams were warriors. It will never be that way again
That was a great interview. I remember watching that play live as a 16 year old die hard Raiders fan from NY. Really enjoyed that. Tho the outcome was so disappointing to me. Great story Phil. It really was an amazing play that I will never forget either. Stuart.
As a 14 year old from Mass, didn't have a favorite in either team, but all these years later, I still remember sitting in front of the TV eating a Whopper from Burger King that my mother had brought home for me after Christmas shopping when the play happened. Funny how the human mind remembers some things? Maybe I should go out today and eat a Whopper in honor of Franco?😁
@@deependz3231 For sure. I remember watching that game at my grandparents home. We will never forget that play. Thanks for the reply. Stuart
I liked both teams. They were brutally physical.
No question, today's game they all would be ejected!
Steelers vs Raiders was like the Crips against the Bloods.
That play broke my heart.I have been a raiders fan since 1967. Rest in peace Franco you were a great player.God bless you.
@@robertfey5345. None of these wuss puss players of today can compare to the players of Franco's era!
I told my daughter that if I wasn't already a Raiders fan, I might have become a Steeler fan as the "Steel Curtain" defense was awesome! Pho always gives a great interview.
God bless Franco, a true gentleman of the game on and off the field, and Phil is a truly class act. It's fantastic that those to became great friends for over 40 years.
Tatum always looked for the knockout punch against receivers. Had he not played that way, this t.d. never happens.
I was a Raider fan at the time and I watched the entire game. The Steelers had dominated the game. Ken Stabler replaced an ineffective Daryl Lamonica in the fourth quarter and engineered the go ahead touchdown with the Snake making a key run on the winning drive to go ahead score making 7-6 Raiders. I had an uneasy feeling and I told my father that I didn't think the Raiders deserved to win the game because I believed the Steelers had outplayed the Raiders. There was only time left for 1 play and then the Immaculate Reception happened. I had seen the Raiders win so many games on the last play of the game that I figured their good fortune had run out.
What a great guy and gentlemen Phil is. I'm glad many players from both teams became buddies, especially Franco and Phil. Heartbroken about Franco, my favorite RB of all time ; he'll always be special to myself and my family . RIP
The Raisers were compensated in 1976 by NFL referee Ben Dreith, who most likely, was in line to receive big bucks if the Raiders won.
Dang..The Heidi Game..
Great interview. Even as a Steelers fan I always felt like the ball hit Fuqua but not the ground. Tatum indeed was going for a kill shot which was how the game was played then. Phil Villapiano was a great player who still gives great interviews. He’s a good man & hope he gets into the Hall of Fame.
Definitely, he absolutely keeps it real! Love that he's a good sport about the whole thing.
Phil won't get in the Hall of Fame. Doesn't diminish what he did on the field.
Agreed and well said...
@@Mr.56Goldtop I don’t Tatum ever said that he was going for the INT. He gave a good solid hit to Frenchy (completely legal). I believe that there’s interviews out there where Tatum explains his point of view. Tatum scared me as a child. That was a different era & those guys used those hits to let receivers know not to come over the middle nor to catch a pass in their “territory.” Tatum wasn’t the only one. Plenty of Steelers & guys on other teams played that way as well. Different era.
@@Mr.56Goldtop The ball arrived at the Raiders' 35-yard line at the same moment as Tatum and Fuqua, and it is there that the legend takes off. Fuqua leaped, and reached for the ball, but Tatum, who had come running from at least 10 yards away, crushed him with his right shoulder, sending Fuqua backwards at least 3 yards. He looked up and briefly caught a glimpse of Tatum standing over him, smiling. The ball ricocheted backward and the central mystery of the play -- of NFL history, really -- is whether the ball hit Tatum or Fuqua to send it flying 7 yards. If it hit Fuqua, the play, by the rules of the day, should have been over. If it hit Tatum, the play was live. One more question: Did the ball graze the frozen field before Harris, hunched over, grasped it with his fingertips and took off down the left sideline? From: www.nfl.com/news/sidelines/controversies-bitterness-and-the-mythology-behind-the-nfl-s-greatest-play
But like you said, maybe Tatum wanted the INT but with time running out breaking up the pass would do the job too. I thought I once read a Tatum interview where he described his intent as wanting to separate Frenchy from the ball but I would have to find the interview. Regardless, it probably should’ve been called back but maybe the refs made up for it by allowing the “Holly Roller” play years later. Lol 😂. One thing for sure, the Raiders were an excellent team for at least the next decade while the Steelers dynasty began to crumble in 1980.
I love watching this play
As a Rams fan would have to concede that those Raider Steelers playoffs were the Super Bowl
That play and the Cal-Stanford "the band is on the field" play are both perfect in multiple what-ifs and crazy sequence of events.
Love and Respect that Steelers and Raiders had for each other...
Huh? At the time they hated each other. For example: Opening game in the 1976 season, after the hard fought game was over, Steelers coach Chuck Noll referred to Raider player George Atkinson as “a criminal element” that should be banished from the NFL. Atkinson pressed charges for slander in a court of law.
You mean that kind of love and respect for one another?😆😅🤣😂
God bless Phil. Franco. All the players and coaches that made that game, and the 70's the GOLDEN AGE of football.
The NFL's version of the Zapruder film.
RIP Franco Harris, 2 days before the 50th anniversary of the Immaculate Reception.
been a steeler fan since 74 but i just love phil and his commentary, lol he seems like a super great guy even tho he played for the raiders lol :)
I agree but re. this he's a full of it as one of Madden's turduckens..........
So you're a fan since 74, than you must remember this: Opening game in the 1976 season, after the hard fought game was over, crybaby Steelers coach Chuck Noll referred to Raider player George Atkinson as “a criminal element” that should be banished from the NFL. Atkinson pressed charges for slander in a court of law.
@@deependz3231 you must be talking about the play where he decided to take lynn swann out instead of trying to tackle? how did the court react to atkinson?
@@mamabuck3067 Is that a rhetorical question? How's this for an answer: Don't know, my Google isn't working, but I do know Raiders won.😅🤣😂
@@deependz3231 no i didn't use google, and maybe i got THE game wrong, but yes they won, oh an btw, i was 10 yrs old :) you need to watch america's game 1976 raiders and listen to phil basically say how the raiders did some "illegal" things while playing the steelers and others. :) noll wasn't wrong, ask lynn swann
The ball never hit the grass. And the direction the ball flew, only Tatum made that happen. Physics
Fantastic interview!
Phil been crying 😢 since 1972
50 years later the Raiders are still bitter! #PS4L
No holding at the line. The play is what it is. The Greatest play of all time!
Holding could conceivably be called on every single play........
Thank you
I was a huge Raider fan back then. I was crushed by this loss. That said, Villapiano was not clipped. You can see the tight end hit him in the side. Not in the back his legs. The ball obviously hit Tatum. The ball bounced hard off Tatum as he hit Fuqua in his side/shoulder area. Not in Fuqua's back, as Phil describes it. Lastly, the height of Franco's knee in relationship to the top of the football suggests that the ball might have been an inch or two above the ground. Though that is more of a speculation. The ref looking at Franco from behind had a pretty good view on whether the ball was trapped or not. The hardest part of this outcome, for me, has been the whinning and belly aching from the Raiders over this play. They have their fair share of crazy calls made in their favor. The Holy Roller comes to mind. The Raiders were truly some of the toughest, meanest and most talented football players ever to throw on the pads. I wish they could have accepted the call without whinning about it and misrepresenting some of the events.
These guys are still whining a HALF a CENTURY later. The gift that keeps on giving!!
I love Phil, but I have to contest how he can "know" there was holding on the line. He can only know if HE was held, and he doesn't claim that. Also, there is nothing in any of the surviving film that shows the ball hitting Frenchy. But a couple of still frames from different angles where it appears it might have hit Jack. Without question it must have hit one or both of them. And, there is no surviving film showing the ball hitting the ground about the time it reaches Franco. He appears to not break stride in "catching" the ball. His claim of a clip is his strongest argument, and that is 50/50 at best. Finally, it is understandable that the officials hesitated in making the call, it is a truly unique play.
True. Plus Villapiano is changing his story here. About 5 years ago he told the NFL channel that Franco MADE THE CATCH. Now he's saying 4:22 he trapped it. And the ref talking on the phone is no big mystery. He called his supervisor to check on the specifics of the "no double hit" rule. The ref knew Tatum touched it, he just wanted to know if it needed to occur before or after Fuqua touched it to be legal. The answer was it made no difference.
@@stephaniegormley9982 As a Cowboy's fan, the players thought John Mackey caught the ball after a Colt teammate touched it in Super Bowl V. The rule backt then was that the offensive guy could not touch it first. Did Fuqua touch it? He might have, but the way it bounced looked like it came off Tatum's chest. Great interview and great perspecitive from one of my favorites Raiders. As a kid, I always loved that name, "Villapiano". He just looked like a football player and he's right, the game is better because of The Immaculate Reception.
Plus clips are hits from behind not the side.
1976 Super Bowl champion. They were the champs for the 1976 season.
The team that made it on a bullshit call against my Patriots!!!
OK. That's new...a complaint of a bullshit call in a Raiders-Patriots playoff game, coming from a Patriots fan. I can honestly say I have never seen that before.
Love Phil Villapiano! The worst moment of his career but is classy talking about it.
I seen several other interviews with Villapiano, and this is the most mild he has ever been about the Immaculate Reception
Always liked Villapiano. A classic slobberknocker Raider from the 1970s
Ball hit Tatum right between the numbers. He was to busy trying to knock Fuquas head off he could have intercepted the pass. Lol
Phil got a few things wrong, the film clearly shows
1. There was no Holding at the line of scrimmage by Pittsburgh
2. Villapiano Never had a hold of Franco
3. Feuqua may have touched the ball but it then Definitely ricocheted off of Tatum's shoulder pad
4. Franco clearly caught the ball IN the Air.
5. Villapiano was not clipped, was close but no...
The film analysis that has been made of this play though the years makes it the NFL's equivalent of the Zapruder film ... 😂
That Tatum hit was 2nd to what he did to Sammy White in 1977 SB, when he and George Atkinson clobbered White. Blew his helmet off his head, chin strap flying. But White held onto the ball.
Tatum and Alonzo Thomas clobbered Sammy White, Atkinson was just nearby. 🏴☠️
Was in the den 50 years ago right before my 10th birthday watching this play. Loved the Raiders players individually bit hated the team because I was a Kansas City fan as a child growing up in LA! Loved the Steelers too. Franco was our hero after that play. Stopped liking the Steelers however after they got rid of Franco right before he was to break Jim Brown's all-time rushing record. Payton was going to eventually get it - but Franco would have had it first for at least a season. The Steelers shipped him off to Seattle! After all he did by making that reception!!!
I remember years ago seeing an interview with him, from soon after the game, where he was *seething*, saying not only this same kind of stuff but also how (as he said) Harris was LOUSY on the play -- "LOAFING" after Bradshaw threw the ball... he was so pissed, and to anyone else it was funny as hell.
Anyone know if there's still video of that old interview??
RIP Franco. We know you caught it brother
It's like watching the Zapruder film.
Gotta be an umbrella somewhere in there..
Not a fan of either side, but the coaches film shows Franco caught the ball clean, it never touched the ground. In the coaches film, I can't find any holding penalties. Finally, the best evidence seems to me the ball hit Tatum. You can argue it if you want, but in the end, two things can't be argued. Number one, in the grand scheme of things, the play doesn't matter because the Steelers lost to Miami the next week. As to whether the Raiders could have beaten the Dolphins had they had the opportunity to play them the next week is something we'll never know. Secondly, the whole play never even happens had Tatum played the ball instead of trying to destroy Fuqua. Tatum could have simply knocked the ball down or gone for the interception. His decision to be a bad ass and cheap shot Fuqua caused the deflection and allowed Franco to live in infamy.
Luv Phil V. but almost everything he explained about the play is contradicted by the new video. Happy that he and Franco bonded over that play and became great friends. RIP Franco.
I believe Franco called Phil every year on the 23rd to remind him of the play. I think they became very good friends. It’s my understanding that Phil is supposed to be in Pittsburgh to help honor franco
R.I.P Franco condolences to the Steelers . he will be missed?
At 5:42 Villapiano states" that play kicked off the Steelers to some unbelievable years". It kicked off their dynasty. The Raiders were part of two separate famous controversial plays in two separate playoff games that launched the other two teams into their dynasties. The first was the Pittsburgh Steelers' Franco Harris immaculate reception. The second was the New England Patriots' Tom Brady "Tuck Rule".
The controversy keeps everyone involved a part of The Greatest Play in the NFL.
Love the raiders. They need to go back to there bad boy image.
@2:16 The football 🏈 does NOT touch Fuqua 😳 Jack tried to take him out when he could have got the interception and Oakland wins ! I’m almost 58 , seen this a thousand times, ( I hated them as a Minnesota Vikes fan since 1969) but this play was legitimate in my opinion 👀
That ball hit Tatum right square on his numbers. It may have skimmed Frenchy on its way into Franco’s arms but the tape is so indefinitive. It appeared to be a legal TD
Absolutely! There's no way the ball rockets that fast and far if it hits frenchy. It can only hit tatum who was doing his torpedo type hitting.
Tatum was moving approximately the same direction the ball ricocheted to where the receiver was moving laterally. It’s obvious to me the forward momentum of Tatum increased how far the ball flew after contact with him. I don’t know if the refs absolutely knew what happened, but in the end they made the right call. Besides, this play made the NFL more famous (and popular) and didn’t that raise all boats? (Financially)
@@MrBiscuit75 🎯
It hit Tatum first look at slow mo
Phil Villapiano belongs in Canton. He's the embodiement of the Oakland Raiders.
Saw a video where Villapiano brags about putting chemicals on his wristbands to burn the eyes of other team's players. Then they showed game film of him intentionally getting his wrist in somebody's face & the guy running off the field with his eyes burning. A Born Raider.
The two most famous plays in NFL history are the Immaculate Reception and the Hail Mary, both resulting in touchdowns. Their names alone suggest there was Divine Intervention.
The Steelers had to go through the Raiders twice to win Super Bowl 9 and 10. Those games were the best football games ever played. I've been a die hard fan of the Steelers since 1972. and I always respected the Oakland Raiders. No better football then to have John Madden whining on the sidelines to the referees
Slow the video down to 0.25 speed. At the 2:19 mark, the ball CLEARLY bounced off of Tatum.
If "ITS" and "BUTS" were candy and nuts OHOOOW! what a party we would all have!
The ball ricocheted back because of the force of Tatum. He was coming in hard. We always hated the Raiders and respected them. Now the Ravens have taken their place as most hated.
As a Raider fan, looking at the Steelers was like looking in the mirror.
Violent & Talented Teams that wanted it more than anybody else!
@@stuartdamon3610 . Those two teams in the 70s were football's version of the Crips vs the Bloods!
so true, only Tatum had such acceleration to cause that ball to rebound so far
just face it - According to the rules at the time, it’s irrelevant whether Fuqua touched the ball if Tatum also touched it, and Tatum most definitely touched it.
Franco Harris was a good guy who never gave up. Can't say anything bad on Franco Harris.
He is still so bitter, and wrong, about the play. I don't care for either team, but I remember watching it at my uncle's house. Still hard to see whom the ball hit first, but it sure looks like Tatum. Zero doubt that Harris caught the ball before it hit the ground. Such a memorable moment.
The next game the steelers lost to Miami. Undeafeated dolphins.... 1972.... that record still stands today.
Tatum drove the ball back upfield so the catch is legal. Only thing is did he really catch it. Not knowing makes this even more fantastic
I was nine years old at the time.
I am still really pissed off.
There is still an empty feeling in my gut.
I believe John Madden still feels the same way as well.
Today it would have.been overturned Im gonna guess
Still pissed off? It’s been 49 years get over it lol!
@@Jay_90.
Walk in my shoes!
One second The Team You Love is going to the Super Bowl, .... the next second the season is over. On This!
It doesn’t help that the Raiders were almost always the bridesmaid in the seventies.
At that time the most winningest team in Pro Sports, but Always the team 1 game short of the Super Bowl.
PAIN. As bad as it gets for a sports fan.
As a Dolphin fan, i feel your pain with the sea of hands catch - i was nine in that one...
@@stuartdamon3610Devoted Steeler fans aren't immune to post season heartache dude ,,,,1972 ,1976 Conference Championship loses ,even the 1977 divisional lost to the Broncos stung in a gut wrenching manner ,fore it foreshadowed inthe minds of Steelers fandom a premature end to the possibility of Pittsburgh being a conference power . We Steelers fans can just as easily recite our playoff game failures as quickly as any fan base in any sports genre . Last year's clunker to the division foe Browns in the first round ! Play off pain isn't a infection relegated just to the Raiders or any other organizations fan base ,just ask any Steelers fan !!!
If the pass had been incomplete, Jack Tatum would have taken credit for breaking up the pass.
Phil has a pretty good argument about a clip, but everything else about the play was legit.
RIP Franco....
The ball definitely hit Tatum first. There's no way it would have deflected that far back had it hit Fuqua. Watch the A Football Life doc about it. A physicist agrees! ha ha
Tatum clearly drove the ball backward 15 yards. If Fuqua touched it, it was barely.. if he had put a lot of touch on it, the ball would have NOT been pushed straight back in accordance with TATUMS' momentum. Fuqua would have pushed the ball to the right and the ricochet would have been WAY over to the right, or Up or something else.
No, Tatums FORWARD motion drove the ball back and slightly to the left!, away from Fuqua's momentum. Just look for yourself!
Also:
Harris did not trap it. He made a great catch, Give him credit.
Villapiano had NO CHANCE to tackle Harris, who had blown past him.
Villapiano was not probably not clipped. But it was close.
All of the other kitchen sink complaints are just weird.. "2 or 3 holding calls",..
One legit gripe was that there was no immediate "Touchdown" called. But that was more a sign of the times as they never reversed calls. The refs were waiting and checking to be sure.
There is also no evidence of all the "safety" concerns that Al Davis and Madden and other Raiders have said over the years.
The Steelers made an incredible play, avoiding a sack, never giving up on a ball, and returning it for a touchdown. This happened after the Raiders made an equally amazing play, Stabler's improbable touchdown run.
I think it is time for the Raiders to stop whining about this. Honestly, there is no other play in the history of sports that I know of, where such conspiratorial whining takes place. Tatum clearly drives the ball back, and Harris clearly catches it and makes an incredible run for a touchdown, after Bradshaw made some heroic escapes to even get the pass off. That's it.
While the Raiders were standing around after the ricochet, Harris, like a bolt of lightning seized the moment. Incredible. Give the man his due and shut up about the rest. Sorry, but its true.
OMG you damn Raiders is always complaining.. Steelers won, end of story 💪
its sort of tatums fault, whey didnt he just tackle fuqua instead of going for a hit
Huh? He got to Fuqua at the same time as the pass. It was not a tackling position. He made a solid football play. Bounce of the ball
As great as it was...It was just "luck" that Franco was in the right place, at the right time"!!! Does anyone remember that "term"?
0:15
No less than three Oakland Raiders players hesitated as Franco Harris caught the ricocheted ball. Phil Villapiano was the only Raiders player that stayed true to his assignment of shadowing Franco.
If the Immaculate Reception footage is considered the NFL version of the Zapruder film, Villapiano is the equivalent to Secret Service agent Clint Hill. Despite the effort, however, it was too little, too late.
It appears to me that there's no question the ball DID hit Tatum, the question being whether it deflected off Fuqua on the way to Franco. I'm not sure on the "catch" and think that might be the least debatable part of this. The clip, well, maybe, maybe not, it wasn't as flagrant as Phil made it sound on another time I saw him. What's funny, though, is if the TD is ruled "no TD" on the basis of any of those things, the play would probably hardly be remembered at all as an incompletion UNLESS Oakland knocked off Miami in the title game (that was the year of their 17-0 season). We're talking about it a half century later solely because it was a game-winning TD - and the team that won cranked up a dynasty soon thereafter. Poor Fuqua - his entire life in his obituary is going to be summarized by one play on a football field (we'd remember Tatum and Franco for other things, some even worse than this). But all anyone will know when they hear Fuqua's name is "that's the guy that did or didn't hit the ball in 1972." A sensational play and controversy and two throwbacks teams from the throwback era. What awesome to see this.
Once the ball hits Tatum it doesn't matter if it hits Frenchy.
The Raiders contention is that it never hit Tatum, that Tatum knocked Frenchy into the ball which then touched Franco which would have made it illegal.
This clip at 56 seconds in shows that the ball hit Tatum, it also shows that Franco didn't trap it.
The mystery is over the Raiders and their fans and George Atkinson can shut the hell up.
czcams.com/video/MjMsa5Yo6qQ/video.html
Don't think it matters if it hit Fuqua also. It just could not go direct from Fuqua to Harris. It could go Fuqua-Tatum-Harris, Tatum-Fuqua-Harris, or Tatum-Harris. Just could not go Fuqua-Harris.
LAW OF PHYSICS. The ball travels by equal and opposite reaction. Defender is going ( i will say right). Ball is going left and can only go right IF it hits a body going right. IF the ball hit the steelers that is traveling left, the same direction the ball was traveling, there is no FORCE that change its direction and speed
Another video on the immaculate reception and more excuses on what calls were missed and what players on both sides of the ball though happened....nothing new...it happened 50 years ago ..it is what it is...nothing changes...I'm not a fan of either team..RIP Franco...u were a class act. Gone too soon...same for John Madden RIP John...great man in all aspects of life..
Phil is awesome but two things.. ball was never trapped on the ground by Franco..it was caught clean and getting blocked on the side is not a clip.
The tell is they never show the entire ball....
Aww...sour grapes Phil... 😢
Is anyone aware that after this game, the Dallas-San Francisco game was played where Roger Staubach led that great comeback and won 30-28.
yes, i remember it well. What a shocking comeback.
czcams.com/video/MYjdFQFdkBs/video.html here's a video of that Dallas comeback over the 49ers in 1972 following the Steeler Raider game that same day. Probably the most brutal day in Bay Area sports along with game 3 of the 89 World Series earthquake.
@@JIM87ification here's a video of that Dallas 49er game following the Raiders Steeler that same day... czcams.com/video/MYjdFQFdkBs/video.html
@@johnmongani5223 thanks alot John, i was 10 yrs old, but i remember both games.
And the sixth thing is that Franco slaughtered a bus load of orphans on his way down the sidelines...🤣
Villapiano was a great player, but boy was he in fantasyland with his take. Franco trapped the ball??? C'mon, Phil! That's the ONE thing about this play that's indisputable! You can clearly see from every angle that he caught the ball before it hit the ground, with a few inches to spare. But I get it - I'm sure it still stings the Raider players, and they have never gotten over it.
Tatum only interested in head hunting. Karma got him on that play.
The Immaculate Reception was the reason why Steelers humiliated Raiders two years later in AFC championship game? I've always thought the reason was that Villapiano and the rest of Raiders defense were ridiculed by Steelers in the 4th quarter.
He's full of it. Tatum hit the ball with his helmet and Franco caught the ball well before it hit the ground. You can see it clearly.
Tatum was too worried about killing Fuqua.. Raiders were the dirtiest team in history.. Wah-wah 🤣🤣🤣🤣
According to the rules in 1972, once an offensive player touches the ball, he is the only player that can legally catch it. It did not matter, then, if a defensive player touches it, or not. Over the years, the rule has changed more than once, but that was the rule then. You don't have to believe me, look it up yourself. "If" Frenchy touches the ball, at all in any way, all other Steelers are ineligible, including Franco.🏴☠️
If Tatum had played the ball instead of trying to destroy Fuqua, Oakland wins.
Off Tatum's left shoulder pad to Franco's hands. End of story.
All sour grapes. I’ve seen the close ups, the wide angle, etc. It was called correctly for the rules at the time.
I'd that play would have been called back, someone wouldn't have gotten out of there alive.
This was the same day as the 49ers' colossal playoff collapse to the Dallas Cowboys. Not a good day for the Bay Area.
That is so true, my parents forced me to go to dinner that day with them, and when somebody at the restaurant told me the Raiders and 49ers both lost i was incredulous
Holding against the Steelers , Hell nearly every play has a potential holding penalty . The Steelers won that game , sure a fluke play but they won .
My TOP 5 sports robberies:
1972 Immaculate Reception
1972 Men's Gold Metal Olympics game
2001 Tuck Rule
2018 Saints Rams NFC Championship game
2019 Kentucky Derby
I can think of a couple others, Maradona's "Hand of God" goal and Brett Hull's skate in the crease.
Derby should be #1.
It wasn't a good rule to begin with and then it's also required judgment calls like this.
Phill and Franco good naturedly milked that play for all it's worth for decades. RIP Franco - all the best Phil.
The Raiders still refer to it as the 'Immaculate Deception'.
I hated the raiders when i was a kid and i liked franco harris...it seened as if every week the raiders would somehow cheat and win games like it was rigged like wrestling...i rember our tv bulb would get hot and our screen would go pink until it cooled down and it happened with about 3 minutes to go so we missed it and i had to call my aunt to ask her what happened abd she couldnt reall explain to me what happened cause she didnt know about football
It was a dumb rule that the NFL never should have had. What's wrong with 2 receivers touching the same pass? They had to know something like this was going to happen one day.
Tatum's at fault for his dirty hit on Fuqua.
2 great teams of the 1970s both 😁won super bowls over those loser vikings🤣
I’m no Raiders or Steelers fan, so I have no love for either team. But Phil needs to get over this and face reality. From every angle available, the ball definitely hits Tatum. Does it hit Fuqua? Inconclusive. From every angle that shows Franco, he caught the ball clean. Doesn’t look to me that Phil got clipped at all. At best he was hit from the side, which would never be called as a clipping penalty. Holding? There’s holding on EVERY play! Ask anyone. It gets called maybe 5% of the time. I’m sure it sucked losing like that. But you lost. Maybe if you had stayed with Franco a little closer you could’ve caught the deflection. The way I see it, if anyone on the Raiders is to blame for the way this play turned out, it was 41 himself. Stop crying foul.