Lou Pickney's Online Commentary
Turn Of Events
Sunday
January 7, 2007
From a sports standpoint, the year has been off to an exciting start. On Monday night, Boise State vs. Oklahoma was a game of the year contender on day one of 2007. Consider this: Boise State threw an INT that was taken back for a go-ahead TD for Oklahoma with about one minute to go, then drove down the field and scored a TD on 4th and long on a hook-and-ladder play. Then in OT, Adrian Peterson scored on the first play from scrimmage for Oklahoma, only for Boise State to one-up the Sooners by scoring themselves with a drive that included another 4th down conversion, then winning the game with a Statue of Liberty play on a two-point conversion try. The topper: Boise State RB Ian Johnson proposed to his cheerleader girlfriend after the game. Even the female demo had to pop for that turn of events.
Last night, Dallas and Seattle met in the NFL playoffs in a game that also had a crazy finish. The events leading to the end were exciting enough, but then Cowboys starting QB Tony Romo, who made the Pro Bowl this year, fumbled the hold for a chip-shot field goal by Martin Gramatica that would've put Dallas ahead with just one minute to go (and Seattle was out of timeouts.) Romo tried to run the ball into the end zone, but he was tackled by Jordan Babineaux before he could get to the first down line, let alone the end zone. That play will be reshown among the all-time memorable blunders in NFL history for decades to come.
It wouldn't have been quite as big of a deal if Romo wasn't the holder; typically the starting QB isn't a holder, but Romo started the year as the backup QB and Dallas never bothered to move him out of the holding role. I figured that if Dallas was to lose in that scenario, it would've been with the "hyper spaz" (as Bob Lonergan once called him) Gramatica shanking it as Mike Vanderjagt stuck pins into a voodoo doll.
And to think that my sister Mary Beth told me just yesterday that she'll start following sports "When they're made entertaining enough to keep my interest for a whole game and then season." If I was in Paris, I would tell her "Bof!" and stick up my nose.
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