Needs bullets
Stefon Diggs and Case Keenum have become forever connected in Minnesota Vikings and NFL lore following the latest "Miracle" finish in sports history.
But what does the Vikings’ stirring 29-24 victory over the New Orleans Saints mean going forward? Is today’s NFC Championship game in Philadelphia against the Eagles a mere formality?
Judge for yourself from the aftermath of some other incredible finishes in a number of professional sports.
— Topping the list is the so-called "Immaculate Reception" on Dec. 23, 1972. With the Pittsburgh Steelers trailing in the final 30 seconds of their AFC playoff game against visiting Oakland, Pittsburgh quarterback Terry Bradshaw threw a pass in the direction of John Fuqua. The ball bounced off the hands of Raiders safety Jack Tatum and/or Fuqua, but before it touched the ground Steelers fullback Franco Harris scooped it up and ran for a game-winning touchdown in a 13-7 final.
So obviously the Steelers went on to their first Super Bowl during their dominant run during the 1970s — wrong. Pittsburgh lost the AFC Championship Game 21-17 to the Miami Dolphins the following week.
-- Nearly as stunning was the "Music City Miracle" on Jan. 8, 2000, in Nashville. Tennessee trailed Buffalo 16-15 after the Bills went ahead with 16 seconds remaining. On the ensuing kickoff, Frank Wycheck threw a lateral pass to Kevin Dyson, who steamed all the way to the opposite end zone and a 22-16 Titans’ lead. They still had to defend their kickoff following the turnaround, but advanced to the divisional round for the first time since relocating the franchise from Houston.
Tennessee went on to defeat Indianapolis, then Jacksonville to reach Super Bowl XXXIV against the St. Louis Rams. In another memorable finish, this time the Titans came up one foot short of the end zone on the final play of the game and lost a heartbreaker.
-- Baseball’s "Shot Heard ‘Round the World" was a game-winning home run by New York Giants outfielder and third baseman Bobby Thomson off Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca at the Polo Grounds in New York City on Oct. 3, 1951. It won the National League pennant as Thomson’s dramatic three-run homer came in the bottom of the ninth inning of the decisive third game of a three-game playoff for the pennant in which the Giants trailed, 4–2.
The Giants went on to lose the World Series 4 games to 2 to the New York Yankees, but at least Thomson’s heroics enabled New York Herald Tribune sportswriter Red Smith to headline his Oct. 4 column "The Miracle of Coogan’s Bluff", and it began with what has been called "the greatest lede ever written": Now it is done. Now the story ends. And there is no way to tell it. The art of fiction is dead. Reality has strangled invention. Only the utterly impossible, the inexpressibly fantastic, can ever be plausible again.
-- Kirk Gibson’s 1988 World Series home run occurred in Game 1 on Oct. 15, 1988, at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Gibson, pinch hitting for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the bottom of the ninth inning, with injuries to both legs, hit a two-run walk-off home run off the Oakland Athletics’ Dennis Eckersley that won the game 5-4 for the Dodgers.
Gibson’s home run — his only plate appearance of the series — helped the Dodgers defeat the A’s, 4 games to 1. It should be noted, however, that the Dodgers haven’t won a world championship since.
-- This one has become buried in significance because it did not win the game, but on April 29, 1970, Jerry West took an inbounds pass from Wilt Chamberlain with the clock ticking down from 0:03, dribbled twice and launched a 60-footer in Game 3 of the NBA Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden. The 3-point line had not yet been instituted, so when West’s shot went through the net it only negated a two-point deficit.
The Knicks went on two win 111-108 in overtime to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series. Even that outcome was dwarfed by Game 7, when New York center Willis Reed, predating the Dodgers Gibson, started despite a notable leg injury and inspired the crowd and his teammates with two early jumpshots as the Knicks went on to win easily.
-- No list is complete without the "Miracle on Ice" on Feb. 22, 1980, in the men’s hockey semifinals of the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. Most realize that a group of American collegians stunned the Soviet Union, which had won the gold medal in five of the six previous Winter Olympics.
The Russian team consisted primarily of professional players with significant experience in international play. The U.S. was the youngest team in the tournament, but somehow pulled a 4-3 upset to set up a Gold-medal clinching win against Finland.
The aftermath? At the 1981 Canada Cup, the United States, with seven players from its 1980 Olympic team, again faced the Soviet Union. The Soviets took the opening round encounter 4–1 in Edmonton. At the 1982 World Championship in Finland, with former Olympians Mike Ramsey, Mark Johnson, Buzz Schneider, and John Harrington, the Americans again met the Soviets, but once again the U.S. lost, 8–4.
The U.S. men’s team didn’t medal again in the Winter Olympics until gaining Silver in 2002 in Salt Lake City.
So this much for the Vikings this afternoon. Any carryover from the thriller against New Orleans would seem circumstantial at best.
And if they do produce an emotional encore, perhaps their fans should best commemorate the moment and be careful what they wish for.