The Miracle at the Meadowlands

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Herman Edwards recovers Joe Pisarcik's fumble.
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Herman Edwards recovers Joe Pisarcik's fumble.

The Miracle at the Meadowlands is the term used by sportscasters and Philadelphia Eagles fans for a fumble recovery by cornerback Herman Edwards that he returned for a touchdown at the end of a November 19, 1978, NFL game against the New York Giants in Giants Stadium. It was seen as miraculous because it occurred at a point in the game when the Giants were easily capable of running out the game's final seconds. The Giants had the ball, and the Eagles had no timeouts left. Everyone watching expected quarterback Joe Pisarcik to take one more snap and kneel with the ball, thus running out the clock and preserving a 17-12 Giant upset. Instead, he attempted to hand it off to fullback Larry Csonka and botched it, allowing Edwards to pick up the ball and run 29 yards for the winning score.

Giants fans refer to the play simply as "The Fumble." It has been referred to as one of the most, if not the most, mistaken coaching decisions in not just American football but any professional team sport. While this view is popularly held among sports fans, the reason why the call was understandable, and why it happened the way it did, has been overlooked in the ensuing years. As a result, all teams would line up differently when they ran out the clock.

The terms reflect the different impact the play had on both teams. For the Eagles, a victory snatched from the jaws of certain defeat served as a morale boost, leading that season to a playoff berth and, two seasons later, the franchise's first Super Bowl appearance. But to Giants fans, it was the nadir of a long era of mediocrity, proof the team not only couldn't succeed but couldn't allow itself to do so. For them, it too would lead to changes that proved beneficial in the long run.

Contents

[edit] Background

It was the first meeting between the divisional rivals that season. The Eagles were in third place in the NFC East behind the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins; the Giants in fourth. Both teams went into the game in similar situations but heading in different directions. They had playoff hopes, especially since this was the first 16-game NFL season, but likely would have to settle for a wild card berth due to the solid lead the powerful Dallas Cowboys had in the NFC East. Given the similarity of their records it was likely the outcome would have playoff implications since the first tie-breaker for a wild card spot is head-to-head record.

[edit] Giants

Going into the game, the Giants were 5-6. A three-game losing streak on the road had made the team's playoff picture much dimmer since midseason. But a win at home against the favored Eagles could, the team hoped, reverse the trend and keep an outside shot at a playoff spot alive. Despite the team's storied past, the Giants had not played in the postseason since 1963 and were almost a non-entity in the post-merger NFL. The move to New Jersey had alienated some longtime fans, even if it made more seats available. Fans had never gone this long without a contender, but while they were growing restless they were still forgiving.

However, there was little pressure they could bring to bear on the ones who could ultimately make changes, longtime team owners Jack and Wellington Mara, who managed team operations closely but feuded so bitterly with each other that at one point a partition had to be erected between their seats in the owners' box. The effects of this uncertainty and instability at the highest managerial level affected the team's play, most significantly when it came to some apparently inexplicable personnel decisions. It was not lost on fans that players (Craig Morton and Fran Tarkenton) and coach (Tom Landry) who had once been in the Giants' fold were now enjoying great success elsewhere. The team also had passed over future stars for less able players in the annual draft.

But all this was for naught. With far more fans wanting tickets than there were available at the stadium, the team was financially healthy no matter how poorly it had been performing on the field, and the Maras were widely seen as far too complacent by those unaware of their feuding.

[edit] Friction between offensive players and assistant coaches

The week before the game, players, particularly on offense, had complained to reporters about the team's assistant coaches.

While head coach John McVay was popular with them, since he had taken over the team in the middle of the 1976 season after Bill Arnsparger was fired and not only improved morale but brought more talented players to the team, they were not so enthusiastic about many of the longtime friends he had hired as assistants. The players felt the assistant coaches were uninterested in helping younger players develop, at least compared to their counterparts on other teams. As an example, they pointed out that the season before, none of the team's three quarterbacks had any previous NFL experience, yet no quarterback coach had been hired. They also noted that one of the few coaches who seemed to care, Jerry Wampfler, coached the offensive line, one of the Giants' most improved units that season.[1]

Offensive coordinator Bob Gibson was the most frequent source of complaint. He had taken to the relatively new practice (now more common) of spending the game in the press box and calling all the plays. Pisarcik had squabbled with him about this, sometimes openly, over the past two seasons.[1]

The players felt that Gibson should let Pisarcik call plays. They pointed out that during the previous week's loss to Washington, the team had attempted only three passes on their many third-and-long situations. They were also irked that on a third-and-7 in overtime, the coaches elected to run.[1]

Gibson for his part did so because he had limited confidence in Pisarcik's passing abilities, an opinion widely shared (the media in New York referred to him as "off-Broadway Joe," a sarcastic reference to the Jets' "Broadway Joe" Namath). He and other coaches pointed out that the three passing attempts the players pointed to had resulted in two interceptions and a sack.[1]

The team's general philosophy at the time was to concentrate on its improving defense and play conservatively on offense until it could be brought up to a more competitive level. The offensive players felt frustrated and wanted to prove what they could do.[1]

[edit] Eagles

At 6-5, things looked a little more promising for the visitors. The two-game win streak they took into the game had gotten them over a .500 first half. Momentum clearly was on their side, and the Giants had not beaten the Eagles since the opening game of the 1975 season.

Still, the Giants were a potent team, and Philadelphia knew it could not relax. A team hoping to break a losing streak at home, against a traditional divisional rival, could be counted on to get up.

They, too, were an old-line NFL franchise coming off many years in the doldrums, and their fans were less inclined to be forgiving. A loss to the slumping Giants would have dealt a severe blow to the confidence the team needed to maintain over the last quarter of its schedule, in which it would face not only the Cowboys but the equally formidable Minnesota Vikings as well as the Giants again in Philadelphia.

[edit] The game

The Giants rose to the challenge. Two early Pisarcik touchdown passes gave them a commanding lead, which they extended with a field goal in the second half. The Eagles, conversely, struggled, missing one of their extra point attempts and botching the snap on the other. As a result they would have to play for a touchdown to win the game outright as it wound down, instead of having the option of forcing overtime with a field goal.[2]

Deep in their own territory, the Giants' Doug Kotar fumbled late in the fourth quarter, raising hopes (or fears) of a comeback by the visitors. Those were quickly put to rest, however, when rookie defensive back Odis McKinney's first NFL interception set up the Giant possession after the two-minute warning. The Eagles had exhausted all their timeouts by this point.[2]

Fans in the stands began heading for the exits as the conventions of football assured there would be nothing left to see, and no remaining danger of an Eagles victory. Teams in this situation today let the play clock run down to the last possible second and have the quarterback take a knee, which is not very exciting to watch. Joining them in giving up on the game on the sidelines was a disgusted Eagles coach Dick Vermeil, who was turning his attention away from the field and toward the postgame press conference where he would have to explain to reporters why his team had fallen to an inferior opponent.

[edit] The play

The Giants faced third-and-2 with 31 seconds left. Since the play clock then was only 30 seconds, one more snap was required.

What happened on second down is directly responsible for what happened on third.

After a running play on first down, Pisarcik kneeled on second. Eagles middle linebacker Bill Bergey had charged into Giants' center Jim Clack, knocking him backward into Pisarcik, in a desperate attempt to force a fumble. Since defensive players usually are not blocked in this situation, they usually in turn don't rush. Any breach of this tacit agreement is considered a provocation by offensive players, particularly linemen whose job it is to protect the quarterback, and is invariably met with fists or other attempts to start a fight.

While this reflected badly on the Eagles, Gibson didn't want to expose his quarterback to further risk of injury (he had already taken some hits earlier in the season), his players to fines for violating the league's rules against fighting or, most importantly, his team to a penalty which could stop the clock and require that they actually have to earn another first down to secure the win. He also shared a dislike of the kneeling play common among older coaches of the era, who considered it unsporting and somewhat dishonorable. So he called "65 Power-Up," a standard running play which called for Csonka to take it up the middle.

In the huddle, the Giants were incredulous. "Don't give me the ball," the former Dolphins' star begged. Other players asked Pisarcik to change the play, but he demurred.[2] The coach had berated him for changing a play the week before, and threatened to have him waived if he ever did so again. The rest of the offense, not privy to Gibson's reasoning for the call, viewed Gibson's call as a power trip. But as a second-year starting quarterback who still hadn't totally proven himself, in the era before free agency, Pisarcik lacked the stature to prevail in this kind of dispute. He rebuffed his teammates' exhortations to just kneel on the ball one more time.

Csonka claims that as he walked away from the huddle he told Pisarcik he wouldn't take the ball if he went through with it. It is not known whether the quarterback heard him or not, however. McVay's headphones, which nominally allowed him to communicate with Pisarcik and Gibson, weren't working properly at that point either. He said he would have overridden Gibson had he heard what was coming.

Across the line of scrimmage, the Eagles hadn't huddled as defensive coordinator Marion Campbell had called an 11-man (i.e., every player they had on the field) blitz. Edwards, who as a defensive back normally would have been several yards deep, was instead close enough to Kotar to talk to him (the Giant assured him that his team was just going to kneel again). Vermeil later said the blitz made the victory possible.

The delay occasioned by the reaction to the play had cost the Giants precious seconds. At the line, Clack saw the play clock winding down and took it upon himself to snap it with 31 seconds left in the game and avoid a delay-of-game penalty, which would have stopped the clock and cost the Giants 5 yards.

Pisarcik, who at the time was distracted making sure Csonka was in position, was unprepared for the snap. It struck his middle finger so hard there was still blood on the nail after the game.[3] nevertheless held on to the ball after a slight bobble and tried to hand it off to the running back. Instead, he hit him on the hip with it and the ball came loose.

It found Edwards' hands with its first bounce as Pisarcik unsuccessfully attempted to recover the ball by falling on it. Kotar, who could have blocked him or fallen on the ball himself, never even saw the fumble, according to Edwards. Once he got it, it was an easy 26-yard sprint to the end zone and a 19-17 Eagles victory.

[edit] The immediate aftermath

All present remember the stunned silence from the stands and the Giants' sideline. The only noise came from the celebrating Eagles.

For Edwards, the play was a personal redemption as he had been burned on one of Pisarcik's early touchdown passes and would have been partially to blame for the loss. It also was his first NFL touchdown. Vermeil refused to question McVay's judgment but allowed that he, too, disliked sitting on the ball to preserve a victory.[2]

Giants fans, who had no reason to assume the game wasn't over, were enraged. For a football team to lose a game in that situation was unprecedented. Why, they wondered, had they not just fallen on the ball instead of trying one more run and risking exactly what happened? Pisarcik, who belatedly explained the press, "I never had control,"[2] needed a police escort to get to his car.[3]

Gibson was fired the next morning.[4] While his call was not cited as the reason, team officials did acknowledge he probably would have at least finished out the season if it had not occurred. So great was the stigma of having called the play that he never worked in football at any level again. He has since become manager of a bait shop in Florida, according to one report. [5]

[edit] Giant fan reaction

Fans turned on management and ownership as previously grumbled complaints about the team's ineptitude turned into an incessant roar. Their team was now the laughingstock of the league. The Fumble (a term already in use within a week) was the straw that broke the camel's back, epitomizing all the mismanagement and all the talent the team had let get away.

At a demonstration outside the stadium prior to the next home game against the Los Angeles Rams, many threw tickets into a bonfire. A Newark furniture dealer named Morris Spielberg organized a Giants' Fans Committee after running an ad in the Newark Star-Ledger that drew hundreds of responses. They met at a hotel near the stadium prior to the team's final home game on December 10 against the St. Louis Cardinals and distributed flyers to pass out to fellow fans during the game. Spielberg had arranged for a plane to fly over the stadium with a banner reading "15 Years of Lousy Football — We've Had Enough." When it came, fans were to chant, "We've had enough" as a peaceful protest against the team's poor management.

The Giants posted a 17-0 shutout win, but when the plane came (an hour behind schedule) fans showed the victory was not enough to make them forget their recent humiliation. " There were more than 24,000 empty seats, yet nevertheless the crowd applause and chants briefly stopped play.

[edit] The rest of the season

The surprise finish accelerated the directions both teams were taking over the season's final four games, for their meeting in Veterans Stadium in the final regular season game.

[edit] Eagles

Philadelphia was able to extend its win streak to four games the next week, and after losses to Dallas and Minnesota, the Eagles managed a season sweep of the Giants with an easy 20-3 victory in the finale to finish 9-7 and snare the one wild-card spot available under the playoff format at that time. "One play gets you feeling like you have confidence," Edwards explained years later. "You're not worried about losing anymore; now you're thinking about how you can win."

The Eagles blew the playoff game to the Atlanta Falcons because of another failed extra point, in addition to a missed field goal as time expired. But it gave them and their fans something to build on for the next season, when the Eagles again qualified for the playoffs.

[edit] Giants

At first, the Giants tried to look ahead and recover. They vowed to win their remaining four games and protect McVay's job.

Instead, the collapse continued. The next week, the Giants blew a 10-point lead over the 3-9 Buffalo Bills late in the game, giving up 27 points in the fourth quarter to lose 41-17. They would win only one more game the rest of the season. The sweep by Philadelphia ensured the Giants would finish last in the division for the third straight season, extending their rut and further angering fans.

[edit] After the season

[edit] Eagles

The next year the Eagles again earned the wild-card spot and then won their first post-merger playoff game over the Chicago Bears before falling to Tampa Bay. Following that season, the Giants traded Pisarcik to them for a draft choice. He would finish his career as a backup to Ron Jaworski five years later. His entire NFL career is usually embodied in that play, and while he is sometimes reluctant to talk about it, he admits that at least people remember his name thanks to it.

The Eagles' momentum carried them further in the 1980-81 season, to the division championship, then the conference title and finally to Super Bowl XV, which they lost 27-10 to the Oakland Raiders at the Superdome in New Orleans. "We won the game at the end, and we went on to the playoffs," Edwards said. "The next thing, we're playing in the Super Bowl." He, too, would find that the play defined his career, even though he remained part of the Eagles' lineup for another seven years before going into coaching after a final season split between the Falcons and Rams.

[edit] Giants

McVay's contract expired and, as expected, was not renewed. He never coached again, but went on to a front-office job with the San Francisco 49ers, where he helped develop that team into one of the most dominant of the next decade. Dino Robustelli, a former All-Pro tight end who served as the team's director of operations, also was let go.

Csonka's contract was up as well. Since McVay, with whom he had played before signing with the Giants with the World Football League's Memphis Southmen, was gone and his career was ending, he decided to return to Miami, site of his past glories, for one final season.

Despite widespread calls to hire Joe Paterno or another successful college coach of the time, the Giants settled on Ray Perkins, then an assistant for the San Diego Chargers, to replace McVay.

While Perkins was able to follow the Eagles' lead and build a team that eventually made the playoffs in 1981, the moves that really made a difference for the Giants drew less attention that off-season.

The fan revolt that followed the Fumble had awakened the Maras to the need to modernize the franchise's operations. They had discussed for some time hiring a general manager, which the team had not had up to then, to delegate most of the decisions that sorely divided them. But as with many other team matters, they could not agree on whom to hire. In the off-season, they called on NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle to mediate, and he suggested George Young, whom they hired. He proved to be a superb judge of talent, drafting Phil Simms, Lawrence Taylor and other future Giants stars over the next few seasons.

Perkins also brought with him a new defensive coordinator, Bill Parcells. When Perkins resigned after the 1982 season to succeed the late Bear Bryant at Alabama, Parcells took over as head coach. He survived a disastrous first season to lead the talent Young had acquired to two Super Bowl championships, and then find further success with the New England Patriots, Jets and Cowboys. Parcells is revered today as one of the greatest coaches in the game.

[edit] Legacy

The Miracle at the Meadowlands has in one way made a lasting impact on the way organized football is played at all levels, not just in the NFL. Most notably, it legitimized the kneel-down play. Coaches all over the league took heed of Gibson's fate and immediately began instructing quarterbacks to sit on the ball in similar situations. Some fans believe this has been detrimental to the game and have called for rule changes to eliminate or discourage the play.

Formation used ever since the Fumble/Miracle for quarterback kneel play.
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Formation used ever since the Fumble/Miracle for quarterback kneel play.

[edit] Formation change

The week after the game both the Giants and Eagles implemented a new offensive formation to be used only in end-of-game kneeldowns.

Prior to Pisarcik's fumble, teams sitting on the ball had done so from standard offensive formations such as an I or a split backfield. The Eagles' unlikely touchdown, however, had made the weakness of doing so glaring. Even though Pisarcik had been trying to hand off instead of kneeling, if he or any other quarterback had fumbled the snap on a kneel there was not only no offensive player there to swiftly recover it, no one was in position to tackle Edwards and save the touchdown, either.

At the end of the first half of the Bills game the following week, the Giants debuted the new formation when they chose to have Pisarcik kneel to perserve their lead. Two running backs stood closely behind Pisarcik while a third was stationed as a sort of safety several yards back.

The Eagles, too, had practiced a similar formation in practice, calling it the Herman Edwards play. Other NFL teams soon followed the lead, and today the formation is standard in college and high school games as well. Today this formation is known as the "Victory" formation, as it not only resembles a V but also signals the end of a winning campaign.[citation needed]

[edit] Similar plays

The play has been recalled often by fans and reporters in later years when a team fumbled away a sure victory late in the game, although it never happened quite as spectacularly as it did that first time.

[edit] In Giants-Eagles rivalry

The play has become a defining moment in the ongoing rivalry between the teams, who play each other twice each season. The series has been noted for freakish occurrences and late-game twists ever since Edwards' return.

Five years later, a badly slumping Giants team posted an upset 23-0 victory over the Eagles (who were not doing much better) in Philadelphia at about the same point in the season. Sportswriters and fans there regarded the embarrassing loss as karma for the Miracle.

On other occasions, the Giants have lost games in the last minute to the Eagles they should have won.

Almost 10 years to the day, on November 20, 1988, Philadelphia's DE Clyde Simmons, a lineman on the Eagles FG-kicking unit, recovered a blocked Eagles field goal attempt for a score and an Eagles victory. On that day in Giants Stadium, Eagles K Luis Zendejas attempted a field goal to give Philadelphia a 20-17 victory in overtime. However, the kick was blocked by New York's Sheldon White. By rule, a ball can be returned by the kicking team if the ball is even with or behind the line of scrimmage when recovered. Simmons picked up the ball near the line of scrimmage and ran 15 yards for the winning touchdown in Philadelphia's 23-17 victory. Giants head coach Bill Parcells loudly protested that the ball was in front of the line of scrimmage, but the call - and the touchdown - stood.

In the 2001-2002 season, late-game Eagles heroics raised the spectre of the Fumble in post-game discussions by Giants fans. On October 22, 2001, in a Monday night game at the Meadowlands, a late Donovan McNabb touchdown pass to James Thrash with 1:52 left resulted in a thrilling 10-9 Eagles win (and ended the Giants' dominant streak of nine previous victories against the Eagles). On December 30, 2001, at Veterans Stadium, McNabb's late touchdown pass to Chad Lewis and David Akers' 35-yard field goal with 7 seconds left clinched not only in the Eagles' victory (which nearly evaporated in the closing seconds as Tiki Barber lateraled a 14-yard Kerry Collins pass to wideout Ron Dixon, who took the ball all the way to the Eagles 6-yard line before being tackled by safety Damon Moore) but also the Eagles' first NFC East championship in 11 years. The Giants' loss also eliminated them from the playoffs only a year after their appearance in Super Bowl XXXV. The Eagles would go on to dominate the NFC East for the next three years.

One month short of 25 years after the Fumble/Miracle, on October 19, 2003, the Giants were once again at home against the Eagles, holding a 10-7 lead inside the two minute warning, deep in their own territory. But a punt which would have given the Eagles similarly poor field position was wobbly and low with little hang time. Brian Westbrook fielded the one-hop punt and skillfully navigated the Giants' coverage (behind what Giants' fans considered to have been an illegal block) to go 84 yards for the game-winning touchdown, which likewise stunned the crowd into silence. Fans immediately recalled Edwards' return.

On September 17, 2006, at Lincoln Financial Field, the Giants appeared to have lost the game when they trailed the Eagles 24-7 entering the 4th quarter. However, the Giants scored 17 unanswered points in the quarter, sending the game to overtime. In overtime Giants quarterback Eli Manning, who had been sacked eight times in the game, lobbed a 31 yard pass to Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress, who fell into the end zone, giving the Giants the victory 30-24, and stunning the Philadelphia crowd into silence.

[edit] In games between other teams

Probably the most famous play to evoke the Miracle/Fumble, although with a very different outcome, occurred almost three decades later, in a 2006 Steelers-Colts AFC divisional playoff game. As in 1978, an Indianapolis turnover on downs had given Pittsburgh the ball on the home team's 2-yard line and an apparent three-point victory over the heavily-favored Colts in the game's final two minutes. However, the Steelers had to keep running the ball as the Colts still had all their timeouts left.

A score would have at least required the Colts to score a touchdown to win the game, so it was in the Steelers' interest to keep running. But on the very first play, running back Jerome Bettis, who hadn't fumbled all season, had it knocked loose by an Indianapolis linebacker. Defensive back Nick Harper recovered the ball and appeared to be on the way to an Edwards-like touchdown, but Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger stopped Harper to make a tackle near midfield.

Steelers fans and players feared that Bettis was about to end his career with the same ignominy that followed Pisarcik. Several plays later, however, Colts kicker Mike Vanderjagt wound up the game's goat, evoking another memorable football moment when he sliced what could have been the tying field goal far to the right, ending what had been a strong season for his team.

The Steelers eventually went on to a Super Bowl victory, and the play would instead enter NFL lore as "The Tackle II."

The play most directly analogous to the Miracle involved a player's, rather than a coach's, questionable decision that cost his team a game. On Thanksgiving Day 1993, the Cowboys were playing their customary holiday contest, this time against the visiting Dolphins, in sleet. As the clock ticked down, Dallas appeared to have won when it blocked a 41-yard Miami field goal. But as several Dolphin players were gathered around the ball, waiting for it to come to rest in order to down it as close as possible to the Dallas goal in case something should happen, something did. Defensive end Leon Lett came sprinting downfield to try and recover it. He slipped on the slick surface. His touch meant that it was a loose ball and Miami was able to recover at the Dallas 1 and attempt another field goal for a 16-14 victory.

Lett earned comparisons to Pisarcik and the 1978 Giants since his action was as unnecessary and seemed equally inexplicable. It was fourth down and the ball would have returned to Dallas as a matter of course. Coming on the heels of the previous year's Super Bowl, when a prematurely celebrating Lett was stripped on a fourth-quarter fumble return, the Thanksgiving gaffe cemented him a reputation for unthinking play that overshadowed his entire career.

[edit] Interesting coincidences

In the years since the Miracle/Fumble, there have been some ironic occurrences related to it.

  • 1980: Giants trade Pisarcik to the Eagles, allowing Pisarcik to play on a team that reaches the Super Bowl.
  • 1983: Giants shutout victory over Eagles in Philadelphia, one of only three that season under first-year head coach Bill Parcells, takes place in Marion Campbell's first year as head coach of the Eagles.
  • 1984: In Pisarcik's last season, Giants begin run of playoff years that culminates in Super Bowl victory.
  • 1986: In Edwards' last season, Giants win Super Bowl.
  • 2001: Edwards takes first NFL head coaching position with the New York Jets, who play their home games in Giants Stadium. Edwards departed the Jets after the 2005 season to become head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs, where he succeeded Dick Vermeil.

[edit] Other uses

On October 23, 2000, the New York Jets overcame a 30-7 fourth-quarter deficit in a Monday Night Football contest against the Miami Dolphins to win 40-37 in overtime. It was the greatest comeback in MNF history, and was later voted the best Monday Night Football game ever by the show's fans. Jets fans have referred to this game, too, as "The Miracle at the Meadowlands."

[edit] See also

  • The Holy Roller, another 1978 NFL game decided by an incredible last-second play involving a fumble that also had a lasting impact on the game.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e Katz, Michael; November 19, 1978; "Giants Voice Mutual Animosity," The New York Times.
  2. ^ a b c d e Katz, Michael; November 20, 1978; "Giants Lose Unbelievably; 20 Seconds Left As Eagles Win," The New York Times.
  3. ^ a b Katz, Michael; November 26, 1978; "Giants' Progress is Key Asset for McVay"; The New York Times
  4. ^ Katz, Michael; November 21, 1978; "Giants Oust Gibson A Day After Bungle"; The New York Times.
  5. ^ Daly, Buzz; November 4, 2005; Mara's Legacy with Giants Recalled; Eye on Gambling, retrieved February 24, 2006.

[edit] References

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