Miracle at The Meadowlands - The Immediate Aftermath

The Immediate Aftermath

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.

Giants fans were enraged. For a football team to lose in that situation was unprecedented. Pisarcik, who belatedly explained to the press, "I never had control," needed a police escort to get to his car. During an NFL Network show about famous on-field bloopers, Csonka said that he immediately had Pisarcik join him on a chartered plane trip to South Florida, where they hung out and fished for a few days before returning to New York.

Gibson was fired the next morning. With angry fans already demanding that someone be held responsible for the blunder, team officials felt he had to go in hopes of saving the season. 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. He refuses to speak about the incident to this day.