Francisco Cabrera alert........

I'm not the one trying to put together a conspiracy theory without evidence.

 

Funny, I don't recall mentioning a conspiracy. Guess you're imagining things again.

 

The Raiders' man argument throught the years is that it should have been deemed an illegal catch. There really hasn't been an argument by the Raiders (at least that I've seen) that Harris didn't make the catch, so I'll assume he made the catch. If he didn't, the Raiders would have brought that up time and time again through the years.

 

You should have been a cornerback with your ability to backpedal.

 

As an aside, during the '93 summer both Cabrera and Bream were at AAA Richmond. I went and saw Richmond play Scranton/Wilkes-Barre one night and during batting practice caught a foul ball hit by Bream. After the game I got Cabrera to autograph it. That is all.

 

Awesome.

 

If that game were played under today's rules, no issue. Back then, a receiver couldn't legally catch a pass after it was touched by a teammate. That was the only issue

 

Doesn't the NFL Films clip pretty well show Harris made a legal catch? The dispute has always been whether the ball hit Tatum or Fuqua.

 

This was a very difficult play. He had to run hard to his left to field the ball, which he did on the run, then made what I think was an excellent throw from probably 225 feet away. If you make that play and that throw, and it's within five feet of home plate, it's really hard to do any better. It was a miracle it was as close as it was, and if anyone other than Bream had been running they would have scored easily.

 

I think part of the issue is that the shot we see most often, the one from field level looking right at Harris, you can't see the ball when he reaches down for it. But you are correct that the dispute has always been about whether or not it touched Fuqua last before touching Harris.

To clarify, if I understand the antiquated rule correctly, the ball touching Tatum would not have automatically made it legal. The rule did not allow a ball last deflected by an offensive player to be caught by another offensive player. The idea was to stop receivers from tipping it to one another.

 

I have heard them admit this was one of the few shots ever they missed.

Probably has been mentioned, but if Tatum did not try to Darryl Stingley Fuqua, the ball is not pinballing around the field.

 

That's what always puzzled me about the highlight package for that play. I don't understand why they didn't just stick with the high sideline shot. That should have shown the catch pretty clearly. Very odd.