Cowboys 17, Vikings 14
Dec. 28, 1975
NFC Divisional Playoffs at Minnesota |
On a gray, freezing afternoon in old Metropolitan Stadium, Roger Staubach threw up a 50-yard prayer. Down near the goal line, Drew Pearson answered it with an awkward one-handed catch and stepped into the end zone as stunned defender Nate Wright sprawled on the turf.
"I closed my eyes and said a Hail Mary," Staubach said in the locker room after the unheralded Cowboys' victory over what probably was the best Vikings team ever. Thus the most memorable play in Cowboys history was christened.
The Hail Mary pass became an enduring source of joy or agony, depending on your allegiance. Staubach and Pearson still find people eager to talk about it wherever they go, and probably always will.
Of course, it would have been long since forgotten as just a long incompletion with 24 seconds left if Pearson hadn't trapped the ball on his right hip as he and Wright reached back for the underthrown pass. Wright stumbled to give Pearson a split-second chance for the catch.
"When the ball hit my hands, I thought I had dropped it," he said. "I said, 'Oh no, I blew it!' But I was bending over, and the ball just stuck between my elbow and my hip."
Pearson clutched the ball as he crossed the goal line, then held it high in triumph. The entire Cowboys team rushed on the field to celebrate while the Vikings blew their stacks. They howled that Pearson had pushed Wright down to get to the ball. Defensive tackle Alan Page got so ugly with his protest that officials assessed the Vikings a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct.
A few years ago, Wright had no complaint about Pearson when he recalled his coverage on that play.
"I saw the ball in the air, and I really thought I could intercept it because I was in good position," Wright said. "Suddenly, my mind became confused. Next thing I knew I was on the ground, and I saw Drew catch the ball on his hip and run into the end zone. I was in shock."
Wright and Pearson agreed there was incidental jostling between them as they raced downfield but no intentional pushing when the ball came down.
"I was looking for the ball out and away, and I felt I had one more gear to get past Nate, but then I saw the ball was underthrown," Pearson said. "Nate was running at an angle a little in front of me to cut me off if the ball went deep. But I came back with my arm in a swim move, reaching over Nate's shoulder for the ball. I was as surprised as anyone in that stadium that I caught that ball."
Staubach wasn't. "Drew was a Hall of Fame receiver. No matter the pressure, if he got his hands on the ball, he caught it."
Afterward, Vikings quarterback Fran Tarkenton suffered a much greater shock. He learned that his father, a Pentecostal minister in Georgia, had died of a heart attack while watching the game with two of Fran's brothers.
The Rev. Tarkenton's first name was Dallas.
