One fumble in 1978 invented the victory formation
Kneeling to end a game used to be considered bad manners. Then the Giants tried to run one out, and the whole league changed how it finishes.
The most boring play in football exists because of the most famous fumble in football.
November 19, 1978
The Giants led the Eagles 17-12 at Giants Stadium. Philadelphia was out of timeouts. The game was, by any reasonable accounting, over.
Everyone watching expected quarterback Joe Pisarcik to take one more snap and kneel. Instead, New York called a handoff. Pisarcik botched the exchange with fullback Larry Csonka. Eagles cornerback Herman Edwards picked up the loose ball and ran 26 yards for the winning score.
It is remembered as the Miracle at the Meadowlands.
Why they didn't just kneel
Because in 1978 kneeling was not really done. Coaches around the league viewed taking a knee as unsportsmanlike, and preferred to run the ball to finish games out. Handing off was the respectful option. That is the part of the story that gets lost — the Giants were not being reckless by the standards of their era. They were being polite.
Before 1978, running a play was the sportsmanlike choice.
The play that replaced it
The turnover made the risk unignorable, and the league moved fast. The quarterback kneel — the victory formation — became the standard way to end a game, with the quarterback under center, backs set deep behind him, and linemen packed tight.
The Eagles had practiced a version of the alignment and called it the Herman Edwards play. Other teams followed. It is now standard in college and high school football as well.
So the last snap of every close game in America is a deliberate act of nothing, performed by eleven men, because one handoff failed in New Jersey in 1978. Football rarely changes because someone reasoned it out. It changes because something went wrong on television.
Quick answers
- Why do quarterbacks kneel at the end of games?
- To end the game without risking a turnover. The practice became standard after the 1978 Miracle at the Meadowlands, when the Giants ran a handoff instead of kneeling and fumbled it away for the losing score.
- What is the victory formation?
- An alignment used to run out the clock — quarterback under center, running backs set deep behind him, linemen tight — where the quarterback takes the snap and kneels.
- Was kneeling allowed before 1978?
- It was allowed but widely viewed as unsportsmanlike, so coaches preferred to run the ball to finish games.
Sources
- The Fumble That Changed Football: Miracle at the Meadowlands, 40 Years Later — Sports Illustrated
- Miracle at the Meadowlands — ESPN Classic
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