The greatest catch ever on Monday Night Football

[kartanoman]

I think we've referenced this play before in old history conversations at Adrienne's BBWC board; however, I found a YouTube video for it and wanted to share it with the group here.

The scene is the first Monday Night strike game of the 1987 season - an October 05, 1987 matchup between the 49ers and Giants. What could have been had the regulars played on this night ... especially since this would have been a rematch of the Giants' 49-3 conquest over their heated rivals from the west coast in the divisional playoffs the previous season. Instead, a terrible strike yielded an even more terrible scenario: replacement players filling in for the regulars with the final results counting in the standings!

I remember this game very well in that I never had a chance to watch it due to the fact that, at the time, I was a freshman at the College of Saint Rose in Albany and a freaky snowstorm, the day before, dropped a foot of snow in the Capital District that destroyed many trees whose limbs fell on power lines and killed power in our area for over three days.

http://www.erh.noaa.gov/aly/Past/1987_Oct/Oct_4_1987.htm

No power, no classes, no soccer match that afternoon ... and no Monday Night Football (though we caught part of the game on a battery powered transistor radio). 1987 was a really strange year for snow as I also remember, just before I graduated high school in Ilion that year, three inches of snow were dumped on us June 2nd ... after we had near 80 degree day prior ... but now I digress.

The Giants were ill-prepared to deal with the strike. GM George Young's reluctance to be pro-active in preparing for the signing of replacement players was clearly evident during both this game and the remainder of the strike. The 49ers, on the other hand, were far more prepared and their players had no problem in handling the Giants' replacement team.

The end result was a 41-21 loss that put the Giants at 0-3 for the season. If anything positive could be taken from the game, a futile display that saw Bill Walsh unleash the wishbone offense on Parcells' scrubs, a 46-yard TD from QB Jim Crocicchia to WR Lewis Bennett not only gave the Giants a tenuous 7-3 lead, it was also the greatest catch in the history of Monday Night Football (at least it was voted as such at the time). Here is the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyTvYupNxOI&feature=related

Here's the NY Times write-up on the game:

http://www.nytimes.com/1987/10/06/sports/unfamiliar-giants-fail-to-stop-49ers-or-tailspin.html

What's interesting was that pass interference was never called on the play!

As for Lewis Bennett, he did not go on to NFL stardom but, instead, was convicted of manslaughter in 1988, after pleading guilty for stabbing to death his wife Diedre in New Haven, CT.

Peace!