The Holy Roller!

Glad Dan reminded us of the Stabler/Casper "Holy Roller" at San Diego in 1978. That looked more like rugby than American football.

Diehard Charger fans are still mad about that play to this day. And it was such a nasty play that it fostered some rules changes about advancing fumbles, etc. I always though the proper call(s) on that play should have either been an incomplete pass, or intentional grounding on Stabler. Watch the replay whenever it comes back on NFL Flims some day, and notice how Stabler flips the ball away. Technically, that would have to be a pass, and if it was, it would probably have to be grounding, if interpreted properly (I think).

If there was replay back in 1978, I think that would have simply been called an incomplete pass, as they couldn't have added the penalty in the replay. It was only 3rd down, however, and Stabler would have had one more chance on 4th down. The "roller" portion of the play took so long that it ran the clock to 0:00, but if the refs were awake and called that incomplete off the bat, there still would have been a few seconds left for one more play.