Your favorite NFL games

-- Super Bowl XXV was the best game I've seen ... and I'm a Bills fan ...
-- 1992 AFC Wild Card: Bills rally from down 35-3 to win, 41-38, in overtime ...
-- Super Bowl XXIII: Montana to Taylor was my first truly memorable football moment ...

 

Some in WNYSportsJournalists.com can correct me, but as I recall that game was blacked out in WNY and southern Ontario. I listened to Van Miller call it on GR55 and remember him talking about all the fans leaving early in the third. Now I'm sure they all claim to have been there for the whole thing.

 

Not to be a killjoy, which I am, but my favorite NFL game is the Pro Bowl, because that means this ridiculously self-important league is gone for six glorious months.

 

Boo You!

 

So, yesterday's late game won't be making your list?

 

In chronological order:

Cardinals 20, Redskins 17, November 1975: A battle for playoff positioning where Mel Gray "caught" a ball at the goal line in the waning seconds to tie it up, and the Cardinals won in OT. The officials ruled Gray had the ball long enough as he just broke the plane of the end zone; in today's replay world, not a chance in hell that stands as a catch. The days when a 12 year old lived and died with the Cardiac Cards.

The Catch: Followed Montana at Notre Dame and always felt he had a little magic in him. When the Niners drafted him, I thought they had something special brewing and this was the day it was validated. Although I think the day when people might have first believed it was possible (including the Niners themselves) was the earlier regular season game with the Cowboys that year, where the Niners rolled to a 3 TD 1st quarter lead and routed Dallas 45-14.

Atlanta 30 Minnesota 27, 1998 NFC Championship: Falcons overcome a 10 point 4th quarter deficit, one Anderson misses, and one Andersen makes - in OT.

Best finish to a football game I have ever seen, though, is the LSU/Kentucky game a few years back, where LSU scored on the hail mary on one end as fans were storming the field/tearing down the goalposts on the other. That was surreal.

 

As far as games I've actually been to, I have a pair.

My favorite game - based on what happened on the field - that I've been to was my first Browns-Steelers game in 1993, when Eric Metcalf returned two punts for touchdowns. The last came with like a minute to go, and I'll never forget the absolute pandemonium in the stadium that day. (Come to think of it, that might have been the last time the Browns ever beat the Steelers ).

My other favorite was actually a dog-crap game in terms of the quality of play, the Browns' 8-0 win over Buffalo in 2007. But the fact is was the first game I ever went to in a snowstorm made it pretty cool.

 

Watched it while waiting for my car to be repaired. The service station went nuts.

My favorite game was on Nov. 14, 1999 when the Browns beat the Steelers 16-15 on a last second field goal by Phil Dawson. The Browns had no business winning this one. I think several Yinzers heads exploded when that ball went through the up rights.

 

Cowboys-Redskins "funeral wreath" game...1979 regular-season closer. Best Staubach comeback ever.

 

It's amazing how life works.

I watched the Nate Poole game at a buddy's house in Indianapolis on vacation as I worked in Wisconsin at the time. I had no inclination I'd be covering the Packers at all in the playoffs.

I had covered the Packers for the majority of the 2002 season and moved back to take the job in Wisconsin to begin with partially due to the attraction of covering them, but due to reasons that I'd rather not get into, I was pulled off for all but one game of the 2003 season.

I return to work that Tuesday and I was told by one of my stafffers to pack my bags, I was headed to Green Bay to cover a playoff game ... the aforementioned Seattle game, ended in overtime by Al Harris' interception. So Nate Poole's miracle catch allowed me to witness one more game at Lambeau Field, my last until I want back this year to cover the Colts-Packers game.

I had a similar experience with the 2006 Colts. I was actually supposed to cover the '06 AFC Championship Game, but got snowed in en route from my regular basketball beat duties in Iowa. Had the Patriots beaten the Colts, I would never have got my reprieve ... covering all of Super Bowl week and the game itself in Miami.

As for my favorite NFL games? I have to split it into Packers and Games I Saw In Person divisions to separate out the fanboy stuff:

Packers Division
1. Super Bowl XXXI (obvious reasons)
2. Chester Marcol's bizarro blocked field goal return for a touchdown in OT against the Bears in 1980.
3. The Replay Game from 1989.

Games I Saw In Person
1. In 1999, I saw the last comeback Dan Marino ever engineered at the RCA Dome. Great game.
2. For bizarro factor, I got tickets for the Packers-Browns 1995 game during September, before they announced the move to Baltimore. That game happened to be the first played at Cleveland Stadium after the move was annonuced and it was more like a protest movement than a game. I still have a card issued by Cleveland Mayor Mike White pleading for fans to be calm at Cleveland Stadium.
3. Super Bowl XLI, not a great game, but the one Super Bowl I covered. Played (and filed from) in oddball conditions with an electrifying start thanks to Devin Hester.

 

Rams at Bears, 1985-86 NFC Championship Game.

Watching Wilbur Marshall return the fumble for the score just as the snow started to fall warmed my cockles to no end.

 

Chester Marcol,... Chester Marcol... Chester Marcol... TOUCHDOWN [/lindsey nelson]