NFL Films: Gift of Grab (1988)

I think the one thing that separates the great ones the truly great receivers from all the rest is that just innate desire to go and get and catch the football the greatest quality of our receivers to be able to catch the ball without regard to the punishment that he's gonna take after he catches the ball and that's a great deal of courage [Music] the great past Kaiser is going to come up with a lot of those balls that are not in a catchable with norm over Syria any of the guys that have the gift of grab know how to find a pointer ball and you're trying to catch the point that's why a lot of good receivers can make one hand catches because they only focus in on the point of the ball and the point of all you can cover it up with one hand you can stop the ball with one hand and you can make one hand catches because you concentrated on just that point I think if your hands are strong I think you have a better ability to catch the ball I really believe that now you say well if they're strong they won't be soft I disagree with that you have to have strong hands to handle the ball if your hands are kind of like soft and not very strong those are the kind of guys that when the ball hits her hand it makes a lot of sound good hands it makes a very soft sound it's almost like like a suction cup [Music] one of the first things you'll see with all great receivers is they look that ball right into their hands the field at a given sport of looking at the ball [Music] you always get your head around as quick as possible that's very important locating the ball you catch it with your eyes first catch it with your eyes and then your hands the crafty veteran wide receivers who might have very good speed but really have discipline routes and used you know the little shoulder a little head turn or the give-and-go that you know the subtleties those are the guys who are very frustrating because they really are maximizing all the skills that they have those receivers blessed with the gift of grab transcend athletics they deserve to be called artists pass-catching can be an art you know with the right person [Music] to reach two stretch four passes we can do things with this body and the execution of catching a pass that no one else is going to have the opportunity of doing [Music] number course again you could make the crowd jump up and Cheer I could you know it was like it was a show you know the great ones do promise you [Music] hi I'm Ahmad Rashad I played wide receiver for ten years in the National Football League and during that time I saw a lot of great pass catchers some possessed speed others could jump many displayed grace or incredible technique but only a special few had the gift of grab when Bernard Malamud wrote the natural one of the greatest sports novels of all time the hero was a baseball player a player born with unbelievable unteachable skills however if Malamud had made his central figure of football player his name would have been Paul Warfield another natural they described as poetry in motion the storm clouds of a Cleveland winter opened to a glow that heralded the arrival of Paul Warfield some receivers break records but he broke new ground in the art of catching the football and while others drew watercolors warfield painted oils they just pop my eyes of the watching I mean his his fluid movement but the overpowering speed that he hand and trying to cover the guy was man-sized job because he had the race be but he could cut on a dime he was a touchdown spoiler senior I bet you his record on scoring points is right up to the top an all-time history of the league the trot had to cool to catch Warfield outraced the 60s with the Browns then sped into the 70s with the Dolphins turning the routine into the spectacular to make something happen after the catch to turn a 5-yard apparent gain into a 50-yard game or better there was a play many years ago against the Raiders and a rainy night in Miami where he caught a ball broke away from some defenders and did a pirouette and got away and got into the end zone just one of the great plays poetry in motion the concentration level was so great that when the football basically was coming in flight I could block out everything else that was occurring in that environment I was not aware of the defendant I was not aware of the stadium crowd or the thousands of people of it was just that football and I had an obsession with catching it always catch it at its highest point [Music] had that those subtle moves that you really don't see where he can get a defensive back off balance and make the break a lot of those great receivers have that they don't just come down and break they've done something in that move to get the guy out bounce and he was a master at that he had a very unique ability to catch the ball inside too and would had no fear and the great receivers will catch and go inside and catch the ball Paul Warfield was one of them [Music] you could beat him up all day long he come back and run the clan pattern little curled and padded he knew he was gonna get a kid you just couldn't intimidate the guy he'd come in the middle he catch passes and he was just like a fleet wide receiver [Music] the post pattern should be renamed the Warfield because he reshaped it into a perfect forum where every step comedy I learned to be very precise and I would run patterns hour after hour I would make a post pattern look like a post pattern drawing up on the board not to round it off and that been off but straight precise angles [Applause] [Music] I never wanted to be in a ballgame where I'd be so totally surprised that I could not react and I would be ineffective so it took a lot of study off of the field on the field the student became the teacher and in this classroom Warfield wrote some key chapters in NFL history [Applause] after five glorious seasons in Miami warfield returned home in 1976 to play out his 13-year career with the Cleveland Browns it proved poetic justice for the man they call poetry in motion [Applause] although many receivers are considered royalty they were just playing in the court of the King Paul Warfield [Music] few athletes have truly revolutionized their positions in basketball first it was Oscar Robertson then Magic Johnson who took the traditional role of point guard expanded it to include prolific scoring and rebounding until it became the central focus of the team and baseball the wizard Ozzie Smith redefined the position of shortstop making it magical if not mystical in pro football tied in was more like an extra tackle that was until 1963 when running back from Syracuse University showing the Baltimore Colts in 1963 a Baltimore Colt rookie named John Mackey reinvented the position of tight end with number 88 the position skipped many phases in its natural evolution it was like stepping from a biplane into the space shuttle I always felt he was a tackle plan in the end John Mackey's guy you'd like to forget he was just too big to play the position he played Mackey is that toughest runner I've ever had to tackle in my career Mackey could turn a two-yard look in Fez into an 80-yard touchdown simply by running over people he was the strongest rana I've ever had to tackle he gets the ball deep and then the show started downfield once he caught the ball because he was he had strong legs and this explosive power that he had really began to show itself in meeting Packers you know I always felt that you should get something out of every play so consequently if I had five or six guys that were going to make the tackle what I tried to do was to punish one so that if I ever got in that situation again how to run directly at the one I punished I always tried to get something out of every play there were many times when I know what can go all away I never thought I was like a Mack truck I really don't know why I broke those tackles other than the fact that I think you have an edge when you think go for the goal line and when you practice every time you catch the ball on going for the goal line I think it gives you an extra just an extra step that enables you to break some tackles I think we've been terrifying for a defensive back we had several plays we had a whole offense that was designed just to get him the ball we didn't care if he was covered or not if he had the ball because he'd run over the first guy and run away from the rest now remember of great running made against the Bears one day Chuck Thompson was describing the action and he runs over two or three linebackers and about the 10-yard line Rosie Taylor jumps on his back in about the three he falls off in Thompson in this fit of of glee he gets he goes in the into the end zone he says and Rosie Taylor was very fortunate he fell off rather than being run over John was like a runaway freight train [Music] on November 20th 1966 this runaway locomotive ran over then away from the entire Detroit lion defense a 64-yard touchdown that is arguably the greatest play in pro football history basically what happened I caught a little diagonal pass and it turned up and I started running toward the goal line and when I saw those defenders coming I made it from my mind that I was going to punish somebody they had about seven or eight guys but we're waiting to make the tackle I closed my eyes and just I'm just gonna ram into it and I came right through [Music] John was afraid of anything living that moved that wasn't human Dennis call batts put a locust inside my pads once every seven years these locusts come to Westminster Maryland they're bad she's four inches long and then make this incredible deep trill so gall bats gets the gets the locust and he puts it in John's the thigh pace place where his thigh pads would normally go so we get in the huddle and Unitas is calling the play and everybody's just trying to restrain themselves and suddenly we hear this loud sound it goes Mackey who's so intense in practice all the time he just listened to play but right and there's a repeat of a sound now Unitas is starting to break up so he can't call the play I heard this buzzing sound and I looked down at my my thigh was vibrating and I had no idea what it was I came out of my pants right on the field and Sheila panicked that said surround him he got us around him and they were always four or five hundred people at practice but the pants came off Mackey's pants came off so a lot of people had a good idea of what John looked like John Mackey played like Hollywood's creation of a pro football player and indeed his feet seemed more fantasy than fact like a select few he transformed the team game into an individual sport John Mack truck Mackey was the prototype for the modern tight end and in some dictionaries next to the definition of tight end is a picture of John Mackey [Music] many of the NFL's finest players are associated with great plays green baize Jerry Kramer is known for the block that sprung the package to the 1966 NFL championship in 1981 when the clock at Candlestick Park read crunch time san Francisco's Dwight Clark reach down deep then reached up to make what will always be known as the catch they were not only getting beaten they were getting beaten up twice before had the 49ers lost an NFC title game to the Cowboys and as the clock threatened to tick them into extinction again quarterback Joe Montana summoned wide receiver Dwight Clark to steal the our number 87 maneuvered the 49ers toward the decisive score and head coach Bill Wolf's cautiously called his number again [Music] if you don't get what you want we'll just simply throw the ball away everything hangs [Music] the outcome of the Super Bowl birth hangs in the balance [Music] [Applause] well it really happened so fast the ball is high and I remember thinking how high it was and it just jumped up there and hit my hands and came right down to me and I didn't even realize it what had happened really until about the next day you know it's a moment that I'll probably live for the rest of my life is seven seconds to change my whole life and our fans and our teams one moment snatched out of time in the immortal form of the catch the Cincinnati Bengals have a tradition of high scoring highly imaginative offense they may line up a tackle as a tight end or use the quarterback as a receiver but this is a team of big plays as well as trick plays and since 1981 the big play past catcher has been Chris Collinsworth a lanky athlete with a long stride Collinsworth is not only tough when going over the middle but dangerous when flying downfield [Music] [Applause] the quiet calm of the ohio river was once an accurate reflection of the team that played inside Riverfront Stadium but in the fall of 1981 this sleeping tiger woke up and unveiled a startling new look [Music] but there was more to Cincinnati's resurgence than their radical new helmets and at the forefront was a rookie wide receiver who wore number 80 Chris Collinsworth Hollandsworth became an immediate starter but needed a little help from his friends along the way and I've made some mistakes early and just trying to learn my assignments and and trying to learn some of the different techniques that they were teaching up here and it took a while to do that but they helped me and they stayed at me especially Isaac and if I can ever get to the point where I'll run my routes like Isaac Kurtis then that I will have a future in this league the advice and support a veteran receiver Isaac Kurtis helped Collinsworth become the top rookie receiver and football with 67 catches over 1,000 yards and eight touchdowns it also earned him his first trip to the Pro Bowl more important the Bengals were winners the ugly ducklings a pro football became the Swans of the sport Collinsworth came to symbolize the dramatic growth of a team that began the year hoping to escape last place and ended it as AFC champions [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] my first year in the league I I was really one of those college he was everybody likes me this is such a great thing we're in the Superbowl and it was an amazing year and I got a lot of the credit for the big turnaround of that 81 team which was totally undeserved and he knows who's a team that was developing and I happen to be at the right place at the right time his rookie success was no accident it took him just seven seasons to catch 400 passes a statistic that matches up favorably with any receiver who has ever played the game [Music] but it is not speed size or quickness that ranks Collinsworth among the best instead it is his ability to master the most elementary aspect of his position I think just catching the football now that may sound over simplistic but when the ball is in the air I like to think that I'm gonna catch it and no matter where it is if it's an thrown poorly if it's in a bad position that I'm gonna go and catch the football I think that's how I've made my living I don't think that I'm not a Willie Gault I don't run the 109 flat I don't have all the great moves and so when the ball is up there I've got to go catch it or else they're gonna find somebody to take my spot [Music] Cris Collinsworth is what I call a good old boy but he is one of those people that is charismatic we walked into a room with him and you were drawn to him he is not one of those prima donna Superstars that is catered to he's one of those people that jumps in and takes the place of another teammate when he gets tired first one on the field and last one doing the extra work or the quarterback after it's over he's a true all-pro performer and deserves to use his skills and personality have made Cris Collinsworth a local hero he is king of the Queen City and truly a receiver with a gift of grab [Music] Raymond berries intensity and technical know-how have made him a successful head coach he guided the New England Patriots to an AFC title in 1985 these same qualities also made berry one of the most productive pass receivers to ever play the game as a Baltimore Colt Barry wasn't very fast but like the old saying goes appearances can be deceiving Raymond berry worked so hard at being the best during the week that when Sunday rolled around he was an example of another old saying practice makes perfect [Music] you know Ray Barry had bad eyes he had a short leg he was slow but he was probably the most intense and hardest-working man in the NFL he was a homemade football player he he made himself into a football player on total Drive on own intensity on a desire to make it Raymond had gone to SMU and Colts when they drafted him thought of him as a defensive end imagine Raymond very 182 pounds of defensive end Raymond Barry came to the Baltimore Colts without an abundance of ability yet went on to become with the cooperation of the game's greatest quarterback one of the finest receivers in the history of pro football as a pair Unitas to Barry were to the Colts what Gable was to Garbo in the movies and Jagger to Richard's in the Rolling Stones the source of very success was lodged in dedication hard work and an obsession with detail that bordered on the fanatic when he went on the road he insisted on taking his own private scale with him because he was fearful that the scales in California and Chicago wouldn't give him an honest reading and he always wanted to play at 182 pounds he didn't want to play at 183 so he knew that if he's carried his own scale with him that he would get an accurate reading so he carried his own scale ribery was an eccentric and there was madness to his method but it helped him become a three-time All Pro and drove him to the Hall of Fame [Music] his achievements were a triumph for the common man a fact not lost on his teammates the longer he stayed around in the unbelievable catches that he started to make the football players the the old clique and the old heads in the established veterans suddenly started to accept him because they found out he could play I think the one guy Raymond would wanna punch with that would have been me because I used to use his hairbrush all the time the cone was there and then his towel and he had his a back brace hanging up that had washed and his underwear and I used to go he's the hairbrush and turn it around the other way so he knew I'd use it and he come up to me look at me he'd say often I wish you would use my hair I serve a man I'll never do it again do the same thing the next day suddenly got to the point that if I didn't do it he'd be looking for from the use of his airbrush he was a slave to routine and incessant practice this ensured his accomplishments but also made it harder for him to tolerate failure and I didn't like to drop a ball it really irritated me he'd practice hour after hour diving that into a net under the goalpost and he once said that luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity and I must be prepared to make my own luck practice makes perfect and Ray Barry became the perfect receiver [Music] it gradually began to become clear that there are a certain number of types of caches is short in all there's about twelve and on the long ball is about six and so basically that became the drill that just constantly working on those eighteen basically type of caches over and over and over two three four of each type every day catching $7,500 a day about a week before training it went to training camp he came up when we worked out you know a high school field over here and he'd have a brown box cardboard box we set out there about 25 yards and they have a clock sitting on the box for the alarm clock for one hour and the inside the box did have letters W B I T you know iy h i just same thing about we're out to practice and he's coming down he's throwing a football he's catching him did it i said after you know after about three quarters and I said Raymond I've got to ask you I says I said what the hell are those letters in that box oh he says it's a reminder for me as I coming off the ball I see those letters that reminds me to watch the ball into your hands I'm a detriment very orchestrated every step in practice until it became pure reflex in the game he was like an author Murray dance student who enters a klutz and graduates an Astaire he didn't smoke didn't drink and like the cowboy who never shot first he played a clean game on the field and off it I know of no white no white aid it was ever regarded with the reverence of a Raymond berry he's a kind of an individual that you know all of us in the locker room language we've been in the service and we use all the four-letter words that were ever invented when Raymond came around most of the players that cleaned up their vocabulary out of respect to Raymond Barry it was almost like he was a member of the clergy in 1958 pro football became a religion television brought to the masses what was called the greatest game ever played as the Colts defeated the Giants in sudden-death for the NFL championship when pro football moved to center stage the game became the centerpiece in the magnificent career of Raymond berry when he left pro football as a player he left it as a remarkable man he was yards apart from any other athlete that you'd ever want to meet just a tremendous credit to you manatee and it makes you makes you pleased to know that that in your lifetime you've had an opportunity to know a man like Raymond berry who has is given most of almost given most all of the good qualities that God wants man to have and very few of its weaknesses many athletes have been stuck in the wrong place at the wrong time in the 1950s centerfielder duke snider the dodgers had the misfortune of playing in new york at the same time as Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays and golf's heyday Gary Player won many major tournaments but during a time when the sport was dominated by Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus when John Unitas quarterback the Colts he searched for Raymond berry Lenny Moore and John Mackay and then he looked for Jimmie or he started a thin face and his upper body would and development in it so if you saw him off the field he looked a little bit thin the most unlikely even more unlikely than Raymond berry to be a great receiver at least Raymond was tall Jimmy was short slow and white despite a lightweight physique Jimmy or tipped the scales in his favor and became a heavyweight receiver with the Pittsburgh Steelers and then with the Baltimore Colts [Music] although he was a quick study on a football field Jimmy or was anything bought a student of the game that was not a great looker at films and oftentimes when his turn of life is found I went to sleep I had to use God and skullduggery to offset like a speed Jim never counted the steps only thing Jim needed to know was where should I be open and when should I be there 2.5 seconds 3.6 seconds just tell me where you need me to be [Music] Jimmy didn't have blazing speed but Jimmy had good cutting ability by being able to cut sharp he was able to break away and then make these great adjustments on the ball [Music] [Applause] thinking that I remember most about that Jimmy or was his ability to look back over his head and focus in on a ball it was coming in over his head and be able to pick up the flight of the ball and adjust with his hands as it was coming in over the top [Music] or was a running back in college and his deceptive moves in the open field allowed him to cut through defenses and bleed the most out of every play it was this surprising facet of his game that made his average per catch the third highest in NFL history [Music] here's a guy that you know if he was playing today could have a field day against those people over there cuz they can't touch him he's playing against guys would come up and hit him and knock him down and sit on him and dare him to get back up again if you ever saw a Moneyball player was Jimmy or he was at his best when the money was home today but you get into a clutch situation yet probably as good a hands as anybody that I have ever seen in professional football the big plug was my thing even as a kid growing up I always want to make big plays spectacular plays that was what interests me when the games in the balance that's when I like to be around and be the one getting the ball that's the fun part in the clutch while racier defensive back seemed dead in the water Jimmy or with sails billowing was blown to the end zone [Music] funny story by Jimmy we playing Philadelphia here in Baltimore and he got hurt just prior to the half and they thought he had separated his shoulder or something in fact I put my street clothes on to go to the hospital because I figured I was through I got in a line for the x-rays and there were 17 people in front of me some of most stretchers but they all said no you go to the front of the line so I go the father line I get X rate and that's warm and there my shoulder starts feeling lot better and so the trainer and myself two trainers we go back to the ballpark didn't have my jockey strap on my ankles weren't tape and it didn't have any pads on it except my shoulder pad so a Jimmy comes into the huddle that's the same thing to me so I said ok nothing booboo the play work and I scored a touchdown in Northville oil field came about because it seemed like in Baltimore I always caught my touchdown passes and what was the third base corner of the stadium it's called the post corner we call it a bend in our terminology but he could make people think he was going to the post and then break back to the corner and he could be more wide open than I think anybody I've ever seen he lulled people to sleep they'd throw that inside play inside and he break off the inside play and he's sitting there and Unitas was always hit him in norrisville Matt went one corner in the in the end zone in Baltimore when you almost get killed if he catch the ball there although he was not God's gift to receivers Jimmy or created a little piece of heaven called boresville it was the final resting place for many a cult touchdown and a memorial to one of pro football's most underrated players Charlie Taylor was a quarterbacks dream and a quarterbacks nightmare he had size speed and phenomenal all-around athletic ability he had a sensational 13 year career that saw him become the NFL's all-time leading receiver before Charlie Joyner surpassed him in 1984 Taylor brought a touch of magic to the art of catching a football but in 1964 the Redskins drafted amount of Arizona State University as a running back and the man who became one of pro football's most prolific past receivers really wanted to be one of the game's best ball carriers [Music] when I first came into a league I wanted to put the the second gym round close to Jim Brown okay in his first two NFL seasons Charlie Taylor led the Redskins in rushing and made the Pro Bowl but as a runner he was simply too raw to make anyone forget Jim Brown he was an undisciplined running back he used to run by his offensive guards he'd be out in front of them when they were going around the ends he would pass them up and decision was made to to not to harness that speed anymore to put him outside where he could do his thing I'm very happy that they did that because it gave me somebody to that I could depend on and go to you knew that he was gonna make the tough catch for you he had such speed and quickness and strength and size not too many people have been able to go from the running position to a received position you hear a lot of people talking about it because the guy catch the ball real well out of the backfield all he should be outside as a receiver it's not that easy I can only think of three people who made that transition pretty well as many more myself and Charlie Taylor luckily I had Bobby Mitchell who was a great one to sort of pattern my my thing after after Bobby and you know Bobby was a smaller guy to me but I'll use some of this stuff and it worked I think Charlie was the epitome of competition Charlie was a tremendous competitor he never felt that the guy on the other side was better the other gal another side at best was equal I knew when I was gonna have a great day I could just look at the defensive back side and I could tell if I had this guy in my pocket I could tell that Charlie had such great athletic ability he best athlete on the field you know with the rule changes today I don't know how many passes he might not cut if he couldn't touch him he was under there where they were jamming people he had to be physical to give him new patterns ahead to what they call the ax saw the clothesline all that kind of stuff and they did become a little physical game and all the way you could stay in volume I survived was you get Eddie to be physical or you had that one everybody taylors ability to our castle and outmuscle opponents made him one of the toughest as well as one of the most talented outside receivers to ever play the game despite his 6-3 200 pounds plus frame he was incredibly agile he boasted an assortment of dazzling moves that left defenses in disarray defenders trying to halt Taylor by hurting him found that a cold slap in the face only made him more determined caylor's Houdini like escapes from would-be tacklers were spectacular for fans but to his teammates these eye-grabbing getaways were merely routine that was very commonplace for Charlie one person is pretty off one person to bring him down because he was such a strong run but he got the football so for the players although we excited to see that but we expected something like that from Charlie the fans father said whoo what is this but we expected that from each other he dropped passes but he made great catches too and I and I figured and my wife told me this that whenever he dropped the past she always knew that what the next play was gonna be because I'd always come back to him because I had to get him back in the game I couldn't let him lose his confidence [Music] by 1975 Taylor was on the verge of catching more passes than any receiver in NFL history but while this record-setting reception had headline-making potential it ended up as fine print 1975 and I'm going for the record 2nd game before season's over will we play in Dallas the TV is at the my parents house because I'm from Dallas so the Paras are sitting around a TV with the cameras on them will this thing take place they're gonna pan where I guess right - I'm dad I'm pumped for the game well so is Dallas to tell the waters of Harris's those guys are getting pumped to to stop this thing first quarter broke two ribs so I don't want to come out the games the doctor bandaged me up for the gut the whole game I did not get a pass my whole family sitting there wait you know ready to break up with the champagne and you know joy and everything but it didn't take place until the fourth quarter the next week and then everybody left to stand I can believe that while making NFL history Charlie Taylor also made magic he combines soft pads with a hard-nosed style of play his versatile skills enabled him to produce 649 career receptions and although Charlie Taylor was never able to be like Jim Brown few receivers will ever be able to emulate Charlie Taylor this Hall of Famer was blessed with a gift of grab and he displayed it with pride I tell you what I'm proud of is that I was good enough to become an NFL player first of all and had the longevity to play the number of years I played and then being respected by your peers to induct you into the Hall of Fame that's what it's all about I mean take it as far as you could take that once you reach to the top then that's it and once the induction to the Hall of Fame then you say well hey I must been pretty good so I look back and say hey I was a hell of a football player Lin Swans pursuit of the ball in flight was beautiful and breathtaking his great catches may have been diagrammed by a football coach but they seemed more the result of choreography designed by a dance master on the football field Swann was a performer in the truest sense of the word and he performed with style and grace first you have to get the right name to be graceful okay you you have to be born a SWOT okay I mean I couldn't invent that you've got to be born with a good name that says that you're graceful once you've got the name and your parents did a good job on that the rest is giving making it seem effortless making it seem like you're not working as hard as you really are would set me apart with my ability to take that style into a place where it didn't belong which is in the middle I go up for the ball I take that style in I'd go up in the air football it was low I'd go down for it and people would look at me and they'd say and they still say today you're too small you can't go across the middle I always thought you were bigger size was motivation to play because when I was growing up I was smaller than all my friends who were older and so I was always constantly improving that was tough enough to go in and do it a lady was known as a tougher see brother I think he probably didn't receive enough credit for that defensive back to it sometimes look at me and say well I can knock that out of you I can take it away from you and year after year I was still able to do it he was the most incredibly talented individual I've ever seen he could do things that other people just couldn't do I mean I don't think Paul Warfield could have made some of those catches I don't think Star Wars girl thing he could name all the great ones and I think only Swanson who made those sketches and it was a body control it was like a Baryshnikov I mean he could leap and and catch a ball that maybe was catchable but wasn't catchable and still keep your feet at that and the great ability to leap and relax and still focus it and catch the ball he was type of receivers he enlarged the quarterbacks target tremendously because of his leaping ability because of Swans leaping ability had a very very unique way to catch the ball and that was Bradshaw would throw the ball high expecting Lynne to jump up catch it with his fan throw but he would do B leap up and catch it inside of his body and completely protected whenever you go for a ball in traffic the ball is the most important thing in the world you grow up with your whole body you bring that ball in like you're catching a punt and when someone comes in and hit you when you in that position your whole body collapsing over the football protects it and it protects you at the same time never could get him you know it's always disappointing that land swung often had the last laugh with defensive backs who failed in their attempts to ground him he was such a superb athlete he could have pursued a different calling in the world of ballet but instead chose football to express his artistry if I wasn't going to be a professional dancer they'll let my athletic play be put to music and let me dance there [Music] for this Baryshnikov completes all the fields of stage although leaving the most graceful athletes have their klutzy moments [Music] for nine seasons lynn swann lived in the sky for one precious moment after another but when Championships were contested he literally rose to the occasion [Music] he was the epitome of the big game player and in Super Bowl 10 against Dallas Swann put on an extraordinary aerial display right from the start he was invincible we're in the Super Bowl I was motivated to play I said to myself I've got to make the first catch and that ball could have been thrown anywhere and you know something inside of me with a said you have to make the catch mark Washington for the Dallas Cowboys was covering and you couldn't cover him any better he reached out of bounds and this time his entire body was out of Bounce when he came down both feet were inbounds I saw it there wasn't gonna be an ordinary guy think I knew at that point on route to the Most Valuable Player honors Swann hauled in the game-winning touchdown with his typical flair for showmanship it was one of the greatest feelings in the world you turn around you see your whole team running at you it's like you raise your hand you say yes yes this is it this is what it's all about this is what you're waiting for in your entire life in your career people will make other spectacular catches but be game-winning catches but Super Bowl 10 that's Sunday that was my day forever [Music]

Channel: Grey Beard

Views: 5,391

Rating: 4.6666665 out of 5

Keywords: NFL Films, Steve Sabol, Ed Sabol, Ahmad Rashad, Dwight Clark, Lynn Swann, Jimmy Orr, Raymond Berry, Charley Taylor, Cris Collinsworth, John Mackey, Paul Warfield

Id: V6AiZySDar8

Length: 50min 17sec (3017 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 13 2020