Sorry to belabor the point here, but...
If I recall correctly, the contention as to whether or not it was a catch was not if Franco dug it out of the turf, but... (this is where it gets fuzzy) that back in the day if the pass deflected off of an offensive player, another offensive player was NOT allowed to catch it unless it was touched in between by a defensive player. I want to say Frenchy Fuqua was the intended receiver, but a Raider seemed to hit the ball backwards towards Franco. It was a bang/bang type of play and without the aid of instant reply available to the refs, they just called it a TD.
My usual waiver... I could be wrong about this
You're correct.
The ball did not hit the turf. He caught it in the air. The two issues were illegal touching and an improvised (and illegal) instant replay review that may have been influenced by a potential riot.
Those were always John Madden's complaints about the play.
First, did the ball come off of Jack Tatum or Frenchy Fuqua? For it to be legal, the ball would have to have caromed off of Tatum. Madden argued that Tatum didn't hit the ball. He hit Fuqua and that caused the ball to shoot back towards the LOS where Franco was lollygagging around, not blocking anybody.
Then, the ref went into the dugout and had a brief phone conversation before making the call. The theory is that he called the press box for some pre-instant replay rule instant replay. Madden thought the riled up home crowd had something to do with it. Steelers were terrible forever and this was the first playoff game in Three Rivers Stadium. They stormed the field after the game which is not common in the NFL. There was a real chance of a riot if the call was illegal touching instead of TD. Madden said if the game was in Oakland, the call could have gone the other way.
Alex.
