Super Bowl

The Fan Teaser: Week 155 Solution

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Seemed a perfect time to use this one.

For the past 53 years, legend has it that the surviving members of the 1972 Super Bowl Champion Miami Dolphins pop open a bottle of Champagne each year when the final NFL team loses its first game of the season. The 1972 Dolphins, of course, are the last team to make it through the entirety of an NFL season without a loss or tie. The bubbly flowed early this season following a pair of Week 5 upsets by the Denver Broncos (21-17 on the road over previously unbeaten Philadelphia) and the New England Patriots (23-20 on the road over the unbeaten Buffalo Bills).

Sadly, one of the members of the ’72 Dolphins not toasting their achievement is the the man who came off the bench and guided them to 11 of their 17 victories that season, Earl Morrall.

Morrall died in April 2014 and was later diagnosed as suffering from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) which has been found in nearly 90% of the brains of former NFL players studied by Boston University. CTE’s symptoms include memory loss and depression. Per his family, Morrall struggled with Parkinson’s disease. A link between CTE and Parkinson’s has been identified by BU researchers (findings here).

Miami Dolphins’ quarterback Earl Morrall prepares to fire a pass during the 1972 Dolphins’ first-round playoff victory over the Cleveland Browns. (Photo by Heinz Kluetmeier/Sports Illustrated)

Morrall was the second overall selection by the San Francisco 49ers out of Michigan State University in 1956 NFL Draft. Though he never quite caught on as an NFL starter (he started just 40% of his 255 career regular-season games), he became one of the game’s premiere backup QBs.

Four seasons before this photo of Morrall was captured during a playoff win against Cleveland, Morrall was in his first year as Johnny Unitas‘ understudy for the Baltimore Colts‘, Morrall came on after Unitas was injured in the opener and led the Don Shula-coached Colts to the Super Bowl where it lost to Joe Namath‘s New York Jets, 16-7.

The circumstances were eerily similar in 1972 when Morrall rejoined his former coach in Miami. Claimed by Miami off waivers for just $100, Shula was tickled to have someone like Morrall available when Dolphins’ starting quarterback, Bob Griese, went down in the fifth game of the season with a broken right fibula and dislocated right ankle. Enter Morrall, who despite being 38 at the time, started the final eight games of the regular season and each of the first two playoff games, before giving way to a now-healthy Griese for the Super Bowl matchup with the Washington Redskins, which Miami won, 14-7.

For his play that season, Morrall was named to the Associated Press’ All-NFL First Team and was the runner-up in both the MVP and Offensive Player of the Year awards (Washington’s Larry Brown claimed both).

Because the NFL doesn’t like to let us non-NFL rights paying folk embed their videos on our website, I invite you learn more about Morrall at this link.

Just to review, The Fan Teaser was the creation of former Ann Arbor News Sports Editor Geoff Larcom. Longtime friend and fellow Ann Arbor News alum, Pat Schutte, took it to heights previously unknown. We aim to keep it alive here at The Sports Fan Project. The cropped photo and the accompanying clue give you an idea as to who or what the image is of. We invite you to use the Comment option to take a crack at solving the Teaser and, if you’re so inclined, participate in some good-spirited banter with your fellow sports fans. The Fan Teaser will appear each Friday morning with the reveal coming to you Sunday.

The Fan Teaser: Week 120 Solution

DouglasTHillLeave a comment
Timely? Perhaps:-) Was this the GOAT?

Rapper Kendrick Lamar will try to do what Super Bowl halftime performers have attempted to accomplish every year since 2007 … top Prince‘s sensational performance at halftime of Super Bowl XLI in rain-soaked Dolphin Stadium in Miami Gardens, FL.

Various media outlets continue to hail his effort as the Greatest of All Time (e.g. the GOAT). Here’s the rankings from Rolling Stone Magazine and FOX Sports and the New York Times/The Athletic.

The legend goes that the skies opened up moments before he was set to take the stage – a stage that was devoid of much traction to begin with – and a producer asked Prince if he wanted to cancel the show because of the rain. He allegedly responded, “Can you make it rain harder?”

Prince performs during the halftime of Super Bowl XLI in Miami Gardens, FL, on February 4, 2007. (Photo by Theo Wargo/WireImage)

And unlike the more modern halftimes when it’s a headliner and a some undercard that could, otherwise, be considered a headliner, back in 2007 it was just Prince, his band, and a pair of backing female vocalists, The Twinz – Maya and Nandy McLean. The Florida A&M University Marching 100 joined the fun about midway through.

The setlist represented several musical eras, with covers of Queen‘s “We Will Rock You,” Credence Clearwater Revival‘s “Proud Mary,” Bob Dylan‘s “All Along the Watchtower,” and the Foo Fighters‘ “Best of You.” His original works included “Let’s Go Crazy,” “1999,” “Baby I’m a Star,” and, of course, a searing rendition of “Purple Rain” in an actual driving rain.

Heck, Prince even dressed to impress the home fans, donning a pant and coat in Miami Dolphins’ aqua and a shirt in the team’s secondary color, coral.

Because the NFL has its content on lockdown, we’re not able to embed the video here, but it’s worth the 12 minutes to revisit Prince’s performance at this link.

Just to review, The Fan Teaser was the creation of former Ann Arbor News Sports Editor Geoff Larcom. Longtime friend and fellow Ann Arbor News alum, Pat Schutte, took it to heights previously unknown. We aim to keep it alive here at The Sports Fan Project. The cropped photo and the accompanying clue give you an idea as to who or what the image is of. We invite you to use the Comment option to take a crack at solving the Teaser and, if you’re so inclined, participate in some good-spirited banter with your fellow sports fans. The Fan Teaser will appear each Friday morning with the reveal coming to you Sunday.

The Fan Teaser: Week 68 Solution

DouglasTHillLeave a comment
Figuring this one out should be elementary Mr. Watson.

Super Bowl XLIII pitted the Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers against one another in Tampa Bay, FL.

The Steelers’ prevailed, 27-23, thanks in no small part to quarterback Ben Roethlisberger‘s 6-yard touchdown pass to Santonio Holmes with 35 seconds left in the game. Holmes’s catch was sensational and has become known as the “Tampa Toe Tap.” Holmes finished with 131 yards receiving, the touchdown, and was named the game’s MVP.

As the NFL is wont to do, sharing video of on non-licenses sites is nearly impossible. If you’d like to check out Holmes’ heroics you’re able to view video of him discussing it here.

Santonio Holmes catches a game-winning TD pass in Super Bowl XLIII.
Steelers wide receiver Santonio Holmes’s leaping touchdown grab with 35 seconds remaining gave Pittsburgh a 27-23 win over the Arizona Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII. (Photo by Sports Illustrated’s Al Tielemans)

Just to review, The Fan Teaser comes courtesy of longtime buddy, Pat Schutte. The cropped photo below and the accompanying clue give you an idea as to who or what the image is of. We invite you to use the Comment option to take a crack at solving the Teaser and, if you’re so inclined, participate in some good-spirited banter with your fellow sports fans. The Fan Teaser will appear each Friday morning with the reveal coming to you Sunday.

The Fan Teaser: Week 18 Solution

DouglasTHillLeave a comment
This absolute flub of a pass rivaled 50 Cent’s classic
ceremonial first pitch in terms of comedic levity …
but at game speed.

Fifty years ago, during the fourth quarter of Super Bowl VII in the Los Angeles Coliseum, Miami Dolphins’ coach Don Shula dispatched his 5-foot-7 kicker, Garo Yepremian, out to put a wrap on a 17-0 season by kicking a field goal against the Washington Redskins to make the score 17-0.

To say things went a tad askew is an understatement.

Miami Dolphins’ kicker, Gara Yepremian, had one career pass attempt and it went for
touchdown – in the Super Bowl – to the opposition.

Yepremian’s kick was blocked by Bill Brundige and wound up back in the diminutive kicker’s hands. His ensuing attempt at a pass was truly dreadful and then, for reasons known only to Yepremian, he attempted to bat the pass out of bounds but rather it wound up in the hands of Washington’s Mike Bass who returned it 49 yards for a touchdown.

That Miami held on to win the game allows all parties (except Washington) to look back on this incident and laugh. Here is a terrific look at the life of Yepremian from Sports Illustrated‘s Jon Wertheim

We’d love to share the video of the sequence but, alas, the NFL has that baby on lockdown. The best we can do is provide this link to the footage.

We do have video of 50 Cent‘s errant first pitch, referenced in this week’s clue, before a 2014 New York Mets’ game.

Just to review, The Fan Teaser comes courtesy of longtime buddy, Pat Schutte. The cropped photo below and the accompanying clue give you an idea as to who or what the image is of. We invite you to use the Comment option to take a crack at solving the Teaser and, if you’re so inclined, participate in some good-spirited banter with your fellow sports fans. The Fan Teaser will appear each Friday morning with the reveal coming to you by the early kickoff on Sunday.