Sunday February 23, 2014
There are moments when sports goes beyond winning and losing and has a huge emotional impact. For me, one of the most memorable of such moments occurred on January 3, 1999, in the NFL wildcard playoff game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Green Bay Packers. The moment I’m referring to is what is now referred to as “The Catch 2,” when 49er quarterback Steve Young threw a game-winning touchdown to receiver Terrell Owens.
After making the catch, Owens lie down in the field, swept up in emotion, as his teammates surrounded him to celebrate. Walking off the field to the sideline, Owens was in tears. He hugged teammates and coaches with one arm as he clutched the ball in his other hand, almost as if he hadn’t believed he had caught it.
Earlier in the game, Owens had dropped three balls. As an up and coming star at the time, he wasn’t supposed to drop three balls. And as the clock was winding down, it was looking like Owens’ drops would go down in history as a huge reason why the 49ers lost that game. There was no reason to believe that Young would go to him with the game on the line. Not with the legendary Jerry Rice on the field.