If I take my personal allegiance to the Steelers away, there is one play in Super Bowl history that stands above all others for me. It was Super Bowl XXXIV, the Rams and the Titans. Six seconds remained; Tennessee was down 23-16 and had the ball at the Rams 10-yard line. One last chance to punch it in. The late quarterback Steve McNair dropped back in the pocket (maybe the only time he threw from the pocket that game) and suddenly saw a streaking Kevin Dyson at the five-yard line. Dyson hauled in that pass, and the world stopped, just for a second. It was Dyson versus Rams journeyman linebacker Mike Jones. There was no one else on the field at that moment. There didn’t have to be. That stadium was full of hope, desire, passion and guts. It was two men pitted against each other, the world on their shoulders.
Dyson tried mightily to escape Jones’ grasp. His desperate lunge towards the end zone was so utterly heart-wrenching that still evokes the same emotions today as it did 13 years ago. He never made it. Mike Jones had won. It doesn’t matter who you were rooting for that day, the conclusion was an honest one. It was football at its very core. Poetry, pain and pure elation wrapped up in one singular moment.
Last night’s game deserved that moment. It didn’t get it.
Let’s be honest, for the first 32 minutes of that game, the San Francisco 49ers were no match for the Baltimore Ravens. They were outclassed in every way. But when the lights went out in New Orleans, they went on for San Francisco. Colin Kaepernick defied all previously held notions about the emotional maturity of a young quarterback on the biggest of stages. I simply cannot imagine what went through the minds of Ravens fans during that second half, but I’m convinced that there was a growing line of jumpers on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. When the 49ers got the ball back with four minutes left, down five, there likely wasn’t a soul watching that didn’t think they would drive down and score.
And were it not for Jimmy Smith and a handful of polyester, they might have.
Before I continue, I would like to issue a short disclaimer. I’m not a Niners fan. I basically watched last night’s game as a football fan. I have no particular affinity for either team. Just wanted to put that out there.
On that fourth and goal play, many things could have happened. Maybe Kaepernick throws a touchdown. Perhaps he gets sacked. What ended up occurring will always hang over this game. If you watch the play with an honest eye, it’s quite clear that Smith’s grasp of Michael Crabtree’s jersey prevents his natural progression towards the ball. Call it holding, call it pass interference; it was illegal no matter what. What should have happened was a truthful ruling; an acknowledgment that a penalty is a penalty, no matter the gravitas of the moment. The game deserved that call.
There are many different ways the game could have rounded out from there. The Ravens might continue their defensive stand. The game may end on a Ray Lewis tackle. Maybe the Niners score, leaving a minute for Joe Flacco to drive the Ravens offense down the field for a game tying/winning field goal. The “what if’s” are both plentiful and maddening at the same time.
I could think of only one thing as Ravens punter Sam Koch galloped around the end zone watching time drift off the clock. It shouldn’t have ended this way. It’s not a tragedy that is relegated to 49er fans. It’s a football tragedy. It was a game of beauty and wild emotion whose potential will always remain unrealized.
Photo Credits: CBS Sports
