Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 27, 1993 TAG: 9301270037
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GENE WOJCIECHOWSKI LOS ANGELES TIMES
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
1 KICK MADE O'BRIEN, OTHER BROKE NORWOOD
Scott Norwood lives somewhere in Virginia now, his exact location a secret to all but a trusted few. He has put a "Do not disturb" sign on his life and the Buffalo Bills, his old team, are not allowed to issue his new phone number to anyone, especially reporters. He changed it three months ago, further distancing himself from the inevitable, from the question that won't go away:What happened?
Two years ago, he stood on the Tampa Stadium field and tried a 47-yard field goal in the waning moments of the Bills' game against the New York Giants in Super Bowl XXV. Fair or not, a career and a reputation were defined in four heartbreaking seconds.
Had you been listening to Buffalo, N.Y., radio station WGR that day, you would have heard the tense, anguished calls of longtime Bills' play-by-play announcer Van Miller and analyst Ed Rutkowski as Norwood readied himself for the kick:
Rutkowski: "It's not all Scott Norwood. You have to have almost a perfect snap, a perfect hold, and then it's all up to Scott."
Miller: "He's made only six of 11 outside the 40. And here we go. . . . Linger ready to snap it back to Reich. Eight seconds to play. Norwood takes a practice swing with the right leg. Everyone up on their feet, watching intently. Norwood reaches down, takes something off his left cleat. Now does it again, still standing up near his holder - concentrating, waiting for the snap.
"Here we go. The Super Bowl will ride on the right foot of Norwood. Waiting for the snap. Reich, arm extended, puts it down . . . on the way . . . it's long enough and it is . . . no good!"
Rutkowski: "Ohhhh."
Miller: "He missed it to the right with four seconds to play. It was long enough, but it was no good! And Norwood, walking slowly and dejectedly off the field. Scott Norwood missed a 47-yard field goal that would have won the Super Bowl."
Giant players flopped to the ground in joy. The Bills, dazed by Norwood's miss, walked toward their locker room as if they were auditioning for "The Night of the Living Dead."
The game had come down to a single kick, which, considering previous Super Bowl results, was a rarity in itself. Usually the games were lopsided affairs during which kickers did little more than punch through meaningless extra points or try to look busy on the sideline.
There have been exceptions:
Jim O'Brien's last-second field goal gave the Baltimore Colts a 16-13 victory over the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl V.
Garo Yepremian's shotput pass to Washington Redskin defender Mike Bass almost gave Miami Dolphin coach Don Shula heart failure in Super Bowl VII.
Don Chandler's four field goals and three extra points helped the Green Bay Packers to a 33-14 victory over the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl II.
But Norwood's kick marked the only time a miss meant defeat.
Afterward, Norwood relived the play for each wave of reporters that washed against his locker. He blamed no one, not Adam Lingner, the snapper, nor Frank Reich, the holder. Norwood kicked it. Norwood missed it.
But Rick Karlis, who kicked two field goals for the Denver Broncos in a losing cause against the New York Giants in Super Bowl XXI, said he would never blame Norwood for the Bills' defeat.
"Scott Norwood got a bad hold on the one he missed," he said. "[Reich] never got the laces around. As soon as I saw the hold [on the replay] I said, `Shoot, no wonder.' That was a long kick not to have the laces in front."
Shortly after the team's return to Buffalo, a rally was held at the city's Niagara Square. An estimated 70,000 were there to welcome the Bills home and, in a strange way, to forgive Norwood.
"We want Scott! We want Scott!," the crowd yelled.
And Scott they got. An emotional Norwood stepped to the microphone and promised to help Buffalo win the next Super Bowl.
Instead, the Bills were beaten soundly by the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl XXVI 37-24. Norwood kicked a 21-yard field goal in the third quarter, but by then it didn't matter.
A few months later, Norwood, the team's all-time scoring leader, was released. When no other National Football League club signed him, Norwood returned home to Virginia. He spoke to Buffalo sportswriters shortly afterward but has not been heard from since.
Was it because of a single kick?
So far, 14 quarterbacks, five running backs, three wide receivers, two defensive ends, one linebacker, a safety and a defensive tackle have won Super Bowl MVP awards (in 1978, the Cowboys' Harvey Martin and Randy White shared the honor). The linebacker was Cowboy Chuck Howley, who became the first and last player from a losing team to earn the award. He can thank Baltimore kicker O'Brien for the distinction.
"The Super Bowl was the Super Bowl, but it hadn't been Hollywood-ized yet," said O'Brien, now chief operating officer of Pacifica Corporation in Westlake Village, Calif. "I was a 23-year-old rookie who didn't know anything anyway. I was just oblivious to it anyway."
O'Brien had a dream that week. Somebody, either he or Dallas' Mike Clark, would kick the game-winning field goal.
"Late in the game, it looked to me that Mike was going to win out, but then [Colt linebacker] Mike Curtis intercepted a pass," O'Brien said.
That's when O'Brien knew the game would be won on a field goal, his field goal.
"It was a foregone conclusion," he said.
Just before he jogged onto the field for the kick, a teammate patted him on the back and said: "Even if you miss it we're still tied. Just do the same thing you've done all year."
Dallas called a timeout. O'Brien, in an attempt to stay calm, asked holder Earl Morrall if there was any wind. No, said Morrall. And after that, a nervous O'Brien entered some sort of cosmic zone.
"It was probably the best kick I ever hit in my whole life," O'Brien recalled. "I don't remember hearing Earl, not a word. I don't remember seeing the ground. I saw the kick and it was going straight. I knew we were going to win the Super Bowl. It brings chills to me, even sitting here now."
As the ball cleared the crossbar, Morrall and O'Brien looked at each other in amazement.
"I jumped about eight feet and he jumped four, which was good for him," O'Brien said. "Then the rest of the team mobbed us."
O'Brien gave the NFL Hall of Fame one of his kicking shoes and kept the other. It's place of glory?
"It's out on the shelf in the garage," he said.
O'Brien does display the game ball he received from his Colt teammates, as well as the ball he kicked to win the Super Bowl. His career lasted only four seasons and he knows exactly why.
"You don't know how you beat that kick," he said. "But I'll take it. I could have played 12 years and not won anything. There's a lot of those guys."
And only one of him.
"Hey, it beats being Jack the Ripper," he said.
Or Scott Norwood, who O'Brien still wishes would have made that 47-yarder against the Giants.
"I thought sure he was going to make it," O'Brien said. "I cried. I felt sorry for him."
note: see chart on microfilm.
Keywords:
FOOTBALL