Immediately following the final snap of a 1990 Monday Night Football slugfest between the San Francisco 49ers and New York Giants, 49ers safety Ronnie Lott confronted Giants quarterback Phil Simms. Lott thought that Simms had issued a series of terrible, horrifying, unrepeatable insults about him.
Just one problem: Simms never said anything of the sort.
The brutal 1980s and 1990s rivalry between the 49ers and Giants — two teams that face off once again on Sunday — features all that is unholy, including this odd personal feud based on a lie that nearly turned into postgame fisticuffs.