Roger Staubach, Drew Pearson hope they'll be booed less after Vikings' miracle play

"I went up to speak at a luncheon and I got booed," Staubach said.

The hall of fame quarterback will be back in Minnesota for the Feb. 4 Super Bowl at U.S. Bank Stadium. Now, there is reason for him to believe he might be treated better after the Vikings defeated New Orleans 29-24 on Sunday, Jan. 14, at U.S. Bank Stadium with a Hail Mary of their own.

Case Keenum threw a 61-yard touchdown pass to Stefon Diggs on the final play for a stunning victory, sending Minnesota to Philadelphia for Sunday's NFC championship game.

"I kind of felt good for the Vikings for making up for the Hail Mary," Staubach said. "If you're a Vikings player from the old days, it doesn't make up for it, but if you're a Vikings fan, you've got to feel good about that. So, now I might get booed a bit less, especially if the Vikings make the Super Bowl."

Pearson, who once had a taxi refuse to pick him up while in Minnesota, is less optimistic. To this day, many believe he should have been called for offensive pass interference for shoving Vikings cornerback Nate Wright.

"I'm still the enemy of the state, and I've accepted that," Pearson said. "But I'm rooting for the Vikings to win the Super Bowl. They've been snake-bit as a franchise for a long time. And finally, maybe the pendulum is swinging in the right direction for them."

The Vikings have had numerous devastating playoff defeats. Other notable ones were overtime losses to Atlanta in the 1998 NFC championship game and to New Orleans in the 2009 NFC championship and Blair Walsh botching a short, last-second field-goal attempt that could have won a playoff game two years ago over Seattle.

The Vikings looked bound for another such loss after blowing a 17-0 lead in third quarter Sunday and falling behind 24-23 on a 43-yard field goal by Will Lutz with 25 seconds left. They were facing third-and-10 at their 39 with 10 seconds remaining and had no timeouts left when Keenum lofted a pass that Diggs caught at the Saints 34-yard line. Safety Marcus Williams whiffed on a tackle and fell, and Diggs ran untouched down the right sideline and into the end zone.

"I was like, 'Holy cow, what happened?' '' said Staubach, who watched the game in the Dallas area. "All (Williams) had to do was kind of let him catch the ball and tackle him. It happened so fast and it was unbelievable, really. They were in an impossible situation. I think it was as exciting as any Hail Mary pass that I've ever seen.''

Pearson also watched the play in the Dallas area.

"That was the type of true Hail Mary in the same way ours was,'' Pearson said. "It wasn't one of those passes that was just thrown up and bounces around and somebody catches it. It was a quarterback connecting with a receiver and beating a defender just like I did with Nate Wright.''

The Cowboys had more time left when Pearson made his dramatic 1975 catch. There were 32 seconds remaining when Staubach took the snap and hit Pearson at the Minnesota 5, and he trotted into the end zone with 24 seconds left. The Cowboys, though, were four points down and needed a touchdown to win while the Vikings trailed by a point Sunday and were mostly thinking of simply getting into field-goal range.

In terms of similarities, the decisive passes in both games were thrown down the right sideline and the winner in each game advanced to the NFC championship.

"It was very similar,'' Staubach said. "We went into the NFC championship game and the momentum helped us a lot and we beat the Los Angeles Rams (37-7). The one difference is there wasn't any controversy with this one like there was with ours, where if you're a Vikings fan, you think Drew Pearson pushed off.''

The Hail Mary moniker came after Staubach, who is Catholic, told reporters after the game that he had closed his eyes and said a "Hail Mary' before taking the snap and throwing the legendary pass. The quote made it into newspapers, and it caught on.

"Are there any prayers left?" Staubach said. "They could call (Diggs' catch) the 'Apostles' Creed' or something.''

The early consensus on what to call the Keenum-to-Diggs play seems to be "Minnesota Miracle," although only time will decide on a permanent moniker. Pearson knows what it won't be called.

"I don't think you can call it Hail Mary 2 because they don't want that reference for sure because of the negative thing Minnesota fans have from the first one," Pearson said. "But I hope the one (Sunday) does at least make up for the one we had. That was the first thing I thought when I saw the play."