SI Writer Don Banks Calls Seahawks' Super Bowl Pass The Worst Call In NFL History
BOSTON (CBS) -- Everybody knows that the Seattle Seahawks' decision to pass the football from the 1-yard line in the final minute of Super Bowl XLIX was a bad one. A very bad one, in fact.
But was it the worst call in the history of the sport? According to veteran NFL writer Don Banks, the answer is yes.
Banks, who's covered the NFL for 25 years and has written for Sports Illustrated since 2000, wrote as part of the magazine's "NFL Worst Week" that Seattle's decision to pass instead of handing off to Marshawn Lynch was the single worst play call in football history.
"Just 36 inches stood between the Seahawks and legitimate dynasty chatter, but instead Pete Carroll's team suffered the most gruesome and grievous self-inflicted wound imaginable on a football field," Banks wrote. "They passed when they should have run, and because of it, they lost when they should have won. Simplistic, but still so true."
Banks was careful to note that offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell made the call, and Carroll gave it the OK, though the article was not written with a particular slant of blame against Carroll or anyone else. Instead it focused on just the call itself, one that will haunt the Seahawks much like Bill Buckner's 1986 error haunted the Red Sox and their fans for decades.
"To this day, I still can't believe they did it. I still can't fathom how they convinced themselves it was worth the chance they were taking. It was the most astounding play call I ever could have imagined in that situation, with so much on the line, and victory so within reach," Banks wrote. "As lapses in judgment go, it was a death blow delivered to the Seattle organization and its legions of loyal and difference-making fans."
Of course, it can't become the "Worst Play Call Ever" without an undrafted rookie out of West Alabama named Malcolm Butler making a ridiculous play on the ball.
Nevertheless, it's a play call that likely will linger over the Seattle organization and the fan base for quite some time, and articles like the one from Banks will help to ensure that to be the case.