“With 1:23 left on the clock, they look like they can run the game out.”
So said Don Criqui, CBS’s play-by-play man for the Eagles-Giants game on Nov. 19, 1978. Like the rest of the football world, he had no clue he was about to witness one of the most notorious plays in NFL history.
Expecting the game to end without incident, Criqui began reading the credits. He acknowledged the game’s producer and director in the truck. And his spotter and statistician in the broadcast booth …
John Mara.
Yes, that John Mara—the current co-owner of the New York Giants, son of then co-owner Wellington Mara.