Failure™ Magazine

Quirkiest Football Failures I

Part one of a three-part series.

Written by Jason Zasky   Filed under Sports

Are you ready for some quirky football failures? With NFL training camps underway and the college football season just around the corner, it’s high time for Failure to present its Quirkiest Football Failures.

November 17, 1968: In what is now known as “the Heidi game,” NBC cuts away from the last 1:05 of a New York Jets-Oakland Raiders game to begin showing the movie Heidi on schedule. The Raiders score two touchdowns in the last 42 seconds to win 43-32, angering countless football fans who missed out on the miraculous finish. The NFL later amends its television policies, requiring games to be broadcast in their entirety in the markets of the teams involved.

October 9, 2003: Jacksonville Jaguars punter Chris Hanson gashes his right leg with an ax while chopping wood in the team’s locker room. The wood and the ax had been placed in the room at the behest of head coach Jack Del Rio, who was using the mantra “keep chopping wood” to inspire his players after a 0-3 start. Hanson’s injury requires emergency surgery and ends his season. It’s not the only time Hanson suffered a freak injury. In June of 2002, Hanson, his wife, and former Jaguars placekicker Jaret Holmes were severely burned at Hanson’s house when a fondue pot overturned.

February 9, 2009: On this first day of the NFL calendar year, Detroit newspaper reporter Mike O’Hara observes that Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Roy Williams is on the cover of the Detroit Lions’ 2009 official calendar. The Lions traded Williams to Dallas four months earlier, and the underachieving wideout had been on the trading block for close to two years.

August 26, 2008: The Kansas City Chiefs release veteran placekicker Jay Feely just a day after signing him to a one-year contract.

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