January 27, 1991: The Scott Norwood Game

January 27, 1991: Super Bowl XXV is held at Tampa Stadium in Tampa, Florida. It might have been the best Super Bowl of them all.

Four years earlier, the New York Giants were favored to win the Super Bowl. Coach Bill Parcells had a good offense, quarterbacked by Phil Simms; and a ferocious defense, led by linebacker Lawrence Taylor. And they did win, beating the Denver Broncos, 39-20.

This time, they won their 1st 10 games, but faltered, dropping 3 straight before winning their last 2 to win the NFC Eastern Division. One of their losses was to the Buffalo Bills, and Simms broke his foot in the game, forcing former West Virginia University standout Jeff Hostetler. to become the new starter, having started only 2 NFL games in 7 seasons.

The Giants dominated Mike Ditka's Chicago Bears in the Divisional round, 31-3. But the task ahead of them was daunting. They had to play the NFC Championship Game against the 2-time defending World Champion San Francisco 49ers, who were 14-2, at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, and they had to do it without their starting quarterback.

The Giants didn't score a single touchdown. They didn't have to. Leonard Marshall evened the playing field a little by sacking Joe Montana, and knocking him out of the game. On the last play, Matt Bahr kicked his 5th field goal of the day, from 42 yards out, and the Giants beat the Niners, 15-13. They were headed for the Super Bowl.

The Buffalo Bills were an unlucky franchise. They were an original AFL team in 1960. They had won the AFL Championship in 1964 and 1965, the last 2 times the AFL Champion did not get to play the NFL Champion in a Super Bowl. In 1966, the 1st season for which that would be possible, they lost the AFL Championship Game to the Kansas City Chiefs.

They got old. They got the Number 1 draft pick in 1969. It was O.J. Simpson. Putting aside what O.J. has done since 1994, he was one of the best running backs in NFL history. But the Bills only made the Playoffs once while he was there, and lost their only Playoff game. They won the AFC Eastern Division Championship in 1980, but lost in the Divisional round.

By 1988, head coach Marv Levy and general manager Bill Polian had built a team capable of winning the AFC East again. In 1990, they went 13-3, including a win over the Giants. They won a 44-34 shootout against the Miami Dolphins to advance to the AFC Championship Game, and in that game, they throttled the Los Angeles Raiders, 51-3. It remains the most points scored in a Conference Championship Game since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger.

The Bills were favored by 7 points as Whitney Houston sang "The Star-Spangled Banner," in the midst of the Persian Gulf War, a hyper-patriotic moment for the country.

The Giants forced the Bills to punt on their 1st drive, and then took 6 minutes and 15 seconds off the clock, but only got a field goal out of it. The Bills came back with a field goal of their own. On their next drive, quarterback Jim Kelly threw some quick strikes to take the Bills down, and Don Smith scored on a 1-yard run. The Bills were up 10-3.

Early in the 2nd quarter, Bruce Smith, who would go on to become the NFL's all-time sacks leader, sacked Hostetler in the end zone, to make it 12-3 Buffalo. But there was something that happened on that play that hardly got noticed, but would loom large. Hostetler was holding on with only his throwing hand. He managed to avoid fumbling. Had he fumbled, it probably would have been recovered by the Bills for a touchdown, making it 17-3.

The Giants launched another long drive, and just before the half, Hostetler threw a 14-yard pass to Stephen Baker, and the teams went into the locker rooms with the score Bills 12, Giants 10.

The Giants went to the ball-control strategy again to start the 2nd half, going 75 yards in 14 plays, taking 9 minutes and 29 seconds, a Super Bowl record at the time. On the 14th play, Ottis Anderson scored from 1 yard out. The Giants had the lead, 17-12, and that lead held through the end of the 3rd quarter.

In contrast, the Bills went for the quick strike again, going 63 yards in 4 plays, the last of them a 31-yard touchdown run by Thurman Thomas. It was 19-17 Buffalo. The Giants were not fazed: Many of them had been there 4 years before. They went 74 yards in 14 plays, in 7 minutes and 32 seconds. The Bills stopped the Giants 3 yards short of the end zone, but Bahr was able to kick a field goal, and it was 20-19 Giants.

Following a trade of punts, the Bills got the ball back on their own 10-yard line with 2:16 play. They had 1 time-out, plus the 2-minute warning. They only needed a field goal, but they would need at least 60 yards to get it.

The key would be to get enough time to do it. That would mean Kelly throwing to receivers such as James Lofton, Andre Reed, Don Beebe and Steve Tasker, and tight ends Pete Metzelaars and Keith McKeller, and then having them run out of bounds to stop the clock.

But that's not what happened. Instead, on the 1st play, Kelly ran up the middle for 8 yards. The clock only stopped for the 2-minute warning. On the 2nd play, Kelly ran up the middle, and got only 1 yard, and the clock did not stop. On the 3rd play, Kelly handed off to Thomas, who ran up the middle for 22 yards and a 1st down. The clock only stopped long enough to move the chains.

On the 4th play, Kelly threw to Reed -- over the middle. It only gained 4 yards, and did not stop the clock. On the 5th play, Kelly ran up the middle again, for 9 yards, and a 1st down. Now, the Bills were in Giant territory. But the clock only stopped long enough to move the chains. And now, the Bills took their last time out. There were 48 seconds left. They were on the Giant 46. They needed at least 15 more yards for a good shot at a field goal.

On the 6th play, Kelly threw to McKeller, who just barely caught it before it hit the ground. It gained only 6 yards. With 29 seconds left, the officials called time-out to review the play, to make sure they got the call of a completed pass right. The replay showed that they did.

On the 7th play, Kelly handed off to Thomas, to gain 11 yards and a 1st down. On the 8th play, Kelly ran up to the line of scrimmage, and spiked the ball to stop the clock. There were 8 seconds left, setting up a game-winning field goal attempt.

The kicker was Scott Norwood, a 31-year-old native of the Virginia suburbs of Washington. He had played in the USFL before joining the Bills, and was used to kicking on the artificial turf at what was then named Ralph Wilson Stadium. He had led the NFL in scoring in 1988. But he had difficulties kicking from beyond 40 yards, and this kick was going to be at Tampa Stadium, on real grass. On real grass, from 40 or more yards, he had made 5 attempts in his career, making only 1.

Adam Lingner snapped the ball for the Bills. Backup quarterback Frank Reich was the holder. Norwood got the ball up. It was long enough... but it went wide right. One Bills kickoff and one fall on the ball by Hostetler later, and the Giants were World Champions again.

Many people blamed Norwood for the Bills' loss. No: Blame Kelly. If he hadn't kept going up the middle, he could have gained his team an additional 10 seconds, and maybe an additional 10 yards.

I used to argue this point with my brother-in-law, a tremendous fan of the Giants. And the Yankees. And the Rangers -- nobody's perfect. He insisted that Kelly couldn't throw to the sideline, because the Giants had it covered too well, with cornerbacks Everson Walls (who finally got his Super Bowl ring, 9 years after being burned as a Dallas Cowboy by Dwight Clark of the 49ers) and Mark Collins, and safeties Dave Duerson (the former Super Bowl winner for the Chicago Bears) and Greg Jackson. I reminded him that Kelly, Lofton and Reed were Hall-of-Famers, and were better than the men covering him. He and my sister are no longer together. This argument, which he still thinks he won, is not the reason why.

This performance, with a Super Bowl record 40 minutes and 33 seconds' possession, remains Bill Parcells' masterpiece. He never won another Super Bowl, although he got the New England Patriots to one and the New York Jets to within a game of one. The Giants wouldn't reach another Super Bowl for 10 years, or win another for 17 years.

The Bills got right back to the Super Bowl, and ended up making 4 straight -- and losing all 4. They have never been to another. They fell victim to "The Music City Miracle" in 2000, and then took 17 years to get back to the Playoffs. Since then, they've shown they can get to the Playoffs, but not to the Super Bowl.

"The Curse of Scott Norwood"? No: If there's a curse on the Bills, it struck long before this, maybe as far back as 1966.

Halfway through their Super Bowl run, the Bills cut Norwood, and signed Steve Christie, whose signature kick sealed the Bills' 1993 Playoff win over the Houston Oilers. Norwood became a real estate agent.

Kelly didn't get the Bills close enough. Marv Levy got outcoached by Bill Parcells. The Giants played a great game. And, even in good weather like this, even for a seasoned professional, making a 47-yard field goal on natural grass is not easy.

Still, fairly or not, this has gone down in history as "The Scott Norwood Game."

In 2019, a poll ranked this game 10th on a list of the 100 Greatest Games of the NFL's 1st 100 years.

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January 27, 1991 was a Sunday. Obviously, there were no other football games played. And baseball was out of season. As is traditional, the NBA and the NHL scheduled as few games as possible, knowing that they'd get clobbered in the TV ratings, even against the long pregame programming for the Super Bowl.

The NBA scheduled only 1 game, maybe its best rivalry, in an attempt to peel viewers off ABC and onto NBC for their broadcast: The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Boston Celtics, 104-87 at the Boston Garden. Earvin "Magic" Johnson scored 22 points for the Lakers. Brian Shaw, substituting for the injured Larry Bird, led the Celtics with 20.

There were 4 games in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders were the only team from the New York Tri-State Area in action, and they lost to the Washington Capitals, 5-4 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Boston Bruins beat the Montreal Canadiens, 3-1 at the Montreal Forum.

* The Calgary Flames beat the Buffalo Sabres, 5-4 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* And, in an All-Canadian matchup -- an attempt by CBC to lure CTV viewers off the Super Bowl, maybe? -- the Edmonton Oilers beat the Winnipeg Jets, 3-2 at the Winnipeg Arena.

And in English soccer, old foes Arsenal and Leeds United faced each other in the 4th Round of the FA Cup, at the Arsenal Stadium, a.k.a. Highbury, in North London. The game ended in a 0-0 draw. Three days later, a replay was held in Yorkshire, and it ended 1-1 at Leeds' home stadium, Elland Road. On February 13, a 2nd replay was held at Highbury, and it ended 0-0. Finally, on February 16, Arsenal won, 2-1 at Leeds. Arsenal would lose to neighboring rivals Tottenham Hotspur in the Semifinal, but won the Football League title.