It’s a Blunderful Life : Will Anyone Ever Let Leon Lett Forget? If Jim Marshall Is Any Indication, No

The verdict came down swiftly and decisively Friday. The question of how bad is bad was answered by football’s highest court, who delivered the message without fumbling or stumbling or forgetting how to spell.

Leon Lett will be pleased.

“What happened to Leon Lett on Thanksgiving was certainly an interesting blunder,” said Joe Horrigan, curator of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. “But on its own merit, it is a blunder that will not stand the test of time.”

Not as long people remember Jim Marshall, it won’t.

On Oct. 6, 1964 in San Francisco, Marshall, a standout defensive end for the Minnesota Vikings, recovered a fumble. Amid the excited screams of fans and teammates, he ran for 66 yards.

They were screaming because he was running the wrong way.

After reaching the end zone, Marshall heaved the ball into the Kezar Stadium stands in celebration, then turned to receive an odd handshake.

It was from 49er center Bruce Bosley.

“I said, ‘Thanks Jim,’ ” Bosley recalled Friday. “He looked up into the stands like, ‘Who is this crazy man? I just scored and he’s congratulating me?’ He still didn’t know what happened.”

Marshall then noticed his teammates shaking their heads and waving. Realizing what he had done, he stopped in the middle of the field, knelt, and stuck his head between his legs.

It was a gesture that nobody who was on that field that day will ever forget.

“I said, ‘Uh-oh,’ ” Marshall recalled. “And then I just shrugged. I didn’t know what else to do.”

Marshall was lucky that the Vikings won the game, 27-22.

He is not so lucky that his blunder has earned him a permanent place in NFL history.

“I get asked that play only about, oh, three or four times a week,” said Marshall, who works with inner-city children in Minneapolis-St. Paul. “It was just a mistake. But it was a mistake made in front of a great deal of people.”

None of this will help Lett, the Cowboys’ defensive end, rest any easier.

He committed one of the dumbest plays in NFL history Thursday by touching a blocked field goal in the final seconds Thursday and allowing the Miami Dolphins to kick again for a 16-14 victory.

This came about 10 months after Lett committed another nationally televised blunder.

In January, Lett’s premature celebration after a fumble recovery allowed the Buffalo Bills’ Don Beebe to catch him from behind, stripping him of the ball and costing Dallas a sure touchdown in the Cowboys’ victory.

“Thursday’s mistake will be an historical footnote to what Leon did in the Super Bowl, nothing more,” Horrigan said. “The Super Bowl error will still be the one that is not forgotten.”

Jim Marshall knows plenty about what is forgotten, and what is not.

He still holds the NFL record for most consecutive games played (282) and for most seasons with one club (19).

He also holds the record for most opponents’ fumbles recovered, 29.

But he is not in the Hall of Fame, and nobody ever wants to know about anything other than the one fumble he ran the wrong way.

“I must see it on TV once or twice a month, they still show it on all the highlight films,” said Marshall, who retired after the 1979 season. “I can’t run from it. It’s right out there. I tell people I got turned around; that happens in the heat of the game. But people never talk about all the other things I accomplished.”

Pro football is filled with men who wish they had a second chance.

--Before the first sudden-death overtime period in the American Football League championship game in 1962, Abner Haynes of the Dallas Texans inspired his teammates by winning the coin toss with the Houston Oilers.

But then he elected to kick off.

“He just got confused, the referees didn’t give him all the information,” Hank Stram, the Texans’ coach, recalled Friday. ‘But I’ll never forget E.J. Holub coming to the sidelines and saying, ‘Coach, Abner blew the call.’ ”

Stram, who reportedly nearly fainted upon hearing Holub, later celebrated when his team won in the second overtime. Haynes may still be celebrating.

--Twice, members of the Green Bay Packers have celebrated touchdowns before scoring.

Dave Hampton spiked a ball on the five-yard line in 1969, but the referees never saw it and his touchdown provided the winning margin in a 14-7 victory over the 49ers.

Sterling Sharpe stopped running on the five-yard line last year on a snowy field against Detroit because he thought he had scored. The ball was knocked out of his hands by a Lion defender, but it bounced back to Sharpe, who then made sure he scored.

--In 1978, the New York Giants passed up a simple kneel by the quarterback and tried a handoff with less than 30 seconds remaining while holding a 17-12 lead against the Philadelphia Eagles.

Joe Pisarcik put the ball against Larry Csonka’s hip, the ball fell to the ground, and Eagle cornerback Herman Edwards grabbed it and ran 26 yards for the winning touchdown.

--In 1946, the Washington Redskins made one of the biggest off-field blunders by drafting UCLA halfback Cal Rossi in the first round. They didn’t realize Rossi was a junior.

When he was eligible the next year, they drafted him No. 1 again. As if he realized what kind of people he might be working for, he immediately retired.