New Footage! Immaculate Reception - Catch and End of Game including Referee's Phone Call
WOW!!! Recently discovered footage of the end of the Immaculate Reception game showing Franco's miraculous catch and the frenzied aftermath, including referee Fred Swearingen's controversial phone call with NFL Senior Official Art McNally. It's noteworthy that the announcers who witnessed the play don't even question that a) the ball hit Tatum, or b) Franco caught the ball. It's obvious in this footage (always has been IMO), and subsequent footage such as the "all 22" game film that the Raiders kept hidden for nearly 50 years confirm it. You can find myth-busting to separate fact from fiction here ( • Immaculate Reception Myth-Busting: What RE... ) including the recent controversy (that wasn't a controversy at the time) of whether the ball hit the ground, along with the original controversies of who touched the ball, was the 1972 double-touch rule violated, was there a clip, did the refs signal touchdown, what happened on the phone call and more. From the 1972 NFL Rule Book: Rule 7, Section 5, Article 2, Item 2-c: Any forward pass (legal or illegal) becomes incomplete and ball is dead immediately if pass is caught by any [offensive] player after it has touched ineligible [offensive] player or second eligible [offensive player], and before any touching by [a defensive player]. The Penalty of this this infraction is a loss of down at the previous spot. However, if a [defensive] player touches [the] pass first, or simultaneously with or subsequent to its having been touched by only one [offensive] player, then all [offensive] players become and remain eligible. So... once the ball made contact with Tatum, it instantly became legal for Franco (or anyone else on the field) to catch it. Some info about the play itself: Barry Pearson (NOT Preston Pearson) is #83, a rookie WR in the Z-position at the top of the screen in the video. He was the PRIMARY receiver on the play (the text mistakenly says "intended" receiver, which was obviously Frenchy Fuqua). The play, 66 Circle Option, was designed to hit Pearson on a roughly 12 yard route over the middle. Pearson wasn't open and Bradshaw got pressure, so Terry ended up throwing to Fuqua. The concept of 66 Circle Option was this: 66 = max protection, circle = back runs circle route to influence coverage, option = primary receiver (Barry Pearson) reads coverage and runs an option route, i.e., sit vs. zone, break away vs. man, etc.). P.S. - Thanks to epaddon and Retro Maven for making this incredible clip available! Some history about the origins of this clip according to epaddon: "The play itself came from the 90s NBC replay when they dug it up for a pregame show spot. The subsequent footage is from videos unearthed by the "Obsolete Video" channel. He never posted it on his channel and that footage started with the aftermath of the play to the signoff. I found the clip of the play on YT and merged it to the Obsolete Video footage for completeness. That copy somehow got out to "Retro Maven". There is no full game out there unless NBC has been holding more back.
