American Football · 1972 · Pittsburgh, USA
The Immaculate Reception
A deflected pass drops towards the turf with the Pittsburgh Steelers seconds from elimination, and a rookie fullback scoops it off his shoe tops for the most disputed touchdown in NFL history.
Steelers 13-7 Raiders
Result
4 seconds
Time remaining at play
60
Yards returned
Forty years into their history, the Pittsburgh Steelers had never won a playoff game. They hosted the Oakland Raiders in an AFC divisional playoff on 23 December 1972, and with 22 seconds left they trailed 7-6 and faced fourth-and-10 from their own 40-yard line. Terry Bradshaw scrambled clear of the rush and threw downfield towards the running back John Fuqua.
The ball, Fuqua and the Raiders safety Jack Tatum all reached the same spot at once, and it cannoned back the other way. Under the rules of the day this mattered enormously: an offensive player could not legally catch a pass that had been touched only by a teammate, and only the officials could say whether it had grazed Tatum first. While that was still hanging in the air, the rookie fullback Franco Harris, trailing the play, took it inches off the ground and ran 60 yards the other way for the winning touchdown.
The officials conferred for several minutes before confirming the score, with no replay technology in existence to settle it, and the deflection has been argued over for decades since. Somebody named it the Immaculate Reception within hours. It gave the Steelers the first playoff win in their history, and NFL polls have repeatedly voted it the greatest play the league has seen.
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