Ah, damn, Terry Bradshaw’s talking again, and saying some words. At halftime during tonight’s Monday Night Football game, ESPN aired a preview of Peyton Manning’s NFL history web show, this one for an episode on the Steelers’ “Immaculate Reception” in the 1972 AFC divisional, one of the most famous plays in football. Famous because it was cool, but also because it’s shrouded in mystery. Bradshaw took the snap in the last 30 seconds of the game, scrambled and heaved the ball downfield to running back Frenchy Fuqua, where it ricocheted off Fuqua and a Raiders defender—who the football actually touched is the lingering question—and was scooped up by Franco Harris, who ran it in for a touchdown.
Here’s an inscrutable diagram someone uploaded to Wikipedia; this is the catnip of the conspiracy-brained. Terry Bradshaw, however, did not know how to cogently make this reference—he surely means here to say Zapruder film, the well-known video of JFK’s assassination:
How could he have possibly—with the extended hand and perfectly thrown ball, I might add—knock it back, how many yards? Seven-and-a-half, by lunging? That doesn’t go seven-and-a-half, it goes to the ground or [incoherent noise to accompany gesticulation]. Physics says! McGruder film. McGruder tape. Seven yards.
There you have it, folks. Physics says! McGruder film. McGruder tape. Seven yards. Case closed.