Don't know if any of y'all caught it, but on ESPN's College Gameday this morning, they discussed the play. And Stanford Steve was commenting on the highlight. At the point Dwight Garner had the ball he said "his knee was down." That precipitated a discussion about what would have happened if there was replay back then, because his knee was down.
Of all the times I've seen The Play discussed, this is the first time the commentators seemed to leave no doubt that his knee was down. Every other time, it's always not been mentioned or it was left up for debate, like you could never ever know, and the mystery is part of the mystique of The Play. When did this shift in perception start? There is an old YouTube video that uses graphic animation to show the knee was not down, but I always wondered if that was manipulated.
The video evidence seems to show the knee down when slowed. frame by frame.
But replay reviews didn't exist in 1982, and just like Don Denkinger's brutal call in the 1985 World Series, Erik Fischer not being called for holding on Nick Bosa on 3rd and 18 in the Super Bowl, The BS PI against the Bengals that helped the Rams win Super Bowl. or the phantom PI on Miami against Ohio State in the National Championship game, human error and bad calls are part of the deal.
All this said, If you were to poll college football fans over the country, how many would say:
- Cal was the rightful winner
- Stanford was robbed
FWIW, my take is you play by the rules that exist at the time (if there was replay, knee would be ruled down), and Stanford deserved to lose for the band being on the field.
Of all the times I've seen The Play discussed, this is the first time the commentators seemed to leave no doubt that his knee was down. Every other time, it's always not been mentioned or it was left up for debate, like you could never ever know, and the mystery is part of the mystique of The Play. When did this shift in perception start? There is an old YouTube video that uses graphic animation to show the knee was not down, but I always wondered if that was manipulated.
The video evidence seems to show the knee down when slowed. frame by frame.
But replay reviews didn't exist in 1982, and just like Don Denkinger's brutal call in the 1985 World Series, Erik Fischer not being called for holding on Nick Bosa on 3rd and 18 in the Super Bowl, The BS PI against the Bengals that helped the Rams win Super Bowl. or the phantom PI on Miami against Ohio State in the National Championship game, human error and bad calls are part of the deal.
All this said, If you were to poll college football fans over the country, how many would say:
- Cal was the rightful winner
- Stanford was robbed
FWIW, my take is you play by the rules that exist at the time (if there was replay, knee would be ruled down), and Stanford deserved to lose for the band being on the field.
