The Vikings, who had started the season 10-0 before finishing 12-2, hosted the 10-4 Cowboys, who were the wild-card because the Cardinals (yes, the Cardinals) had won the NFC East. The Vikings led late, 14-10. It didn’t last.
Fueled by a pair of controversial plays — starting with a completed pass to receiver Drew Pearson on fourth and 17 that the Vikings insisted was not caught in bounds. But that’s the forgotten footnote. The centerpiece of that game was the 50-yard touchdown pass to Pearson that coined the phrase “Hail Mary.”
Said quarterback Roger Staubach after the game, “I closed my eyes and said a Hail Mary.”
The intervention on the back end of the play was far less than divine. The Vikings continue to believe Pearson shoved cornerback Nate Wright to the ground as the ball was coming in. There’s never been a clear view of the action. Obviously, Wright fell. Was he pushed? That question has been part of the allure of the play for half of a century, as of today.
Vikings fans have always felt otherwise. For some, like a 10-year-old boy growing up in West Virginia who was bawling on the kitchen floor after the game, it still hurts. But at least I didn’t get hit in the head with a whiskey bottle, unlike game official Armen Terzian. (So much for Minnesota nice.)
Lost in the controversy is the fact that the Vikings didn’t see fit to double cover the most dangerous weapon on the Dallas offense. Safety Paul Krause arrived just late enough to complain about the lack of a penalty flag on Pearson.
Regardless, the play stood. The Cowboys advanced. And they ultimately lost the Super Bowl to the Steelers.
That’s the silver lining in a dark day for the Vikings. But for the Hail Mary play, the Vikings would have been in line to lose their third straight Super Bowl. Which, based on what happened the next year, would have been four in a row and five overall.
