Ray Hamilton closes in on Ken Stabler.
This may not be the play in question.
Even if it is, the photo doesn't make an answer conclusive.
December 18, 1976: The New England Patriots play the Oakland Raiders in an AFC Divisional Playoff game at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum.
The Patriots had won the AFC Eastern Division, their 1st Division title and 1st Playoff berth in 13 years. The Raiders, Champions of the AFC Western Division, had the best record in the League, 13-1. But their only loss was to the Patriots, by a whopping 48-17.
So New England fans were looking forward to the team's 1st Super Bowl. (Even if the team, known as the Boston Patriots from their 1960 founding until 1970, had won the AFL Championship Game in 1963, they would not have played the NFL Champion Chicago Bears for the world championship.) This was the 1st time the Patriots really captured New England's attention, after the Celtics had just won their 2nd title in 3 years and their 13th overall, the Bruins were still in their biggest glory period, and the Red Sox had won a Pennant the year before.
The Patriots scored first, a touchdown, and a Raider field goal made it 7-3 at the end of the 1st quarter. The Raiders scored a touchdown in the 2nd quarter to take a 10-7 halftime lead. Quarterback Steve Grogan led the Pats to 2 touchdown drives in the 3rd quarter, making it 21-10 New England.
But as the 3rd quarter moved to the 4th, Raider quarterback Ken Stabler led a touchdown drive that closed the Silver and Black to 21-17. Grogan got to the Raiders' 28-yard line, and appeared to have gotten a 1st down on a quarterback sneak. But referee Ben Dreith flagged them for offsides. That made it 4th down, and Chuck Fairbanks, who had coached the University of Oklahoma to 3 Big Eight Conference titles, sent John Smith in to try a 50-yard field goal, and it was off target.
That gave the Raiders 72 yards to go for a winning touchdown, and 4:12 left in which to get it. Stabler got them into Patriot territory, but got sacked by Mel Lunsford. It was 3rd & 18 on the Patriot 36. Stabler threw an incomplete pass. But Dreith struck again, ruling roughing the passer on Ray Hamilton. That gave the Raiders a 1st down on the Patriot 13, with 57 seconds left. Stabler scored on a quarterback draw with 14 seconds left, giving the Raiders a 24-21 win.
The Patriots were furious. Fairbanks said, "It looked to me like Ray Hamilton hit the ball first. If he did deflect the ball, it was an incorrect call." Julius Adams, at the beginning of a career that would see him become the team's best defensive end ever, said, "That was one of the worst-called games I have ever seen in my life."
Raider head coach John Madden, naturally, disagreed: "If you could sit there for 60 minutes and say the officials turned that game around with penalties at the end, you were wasting your time. You were eating a hot dog somewhere, instead of watching what was going on. There was some great football out there."
Having looked at the play myself, I can see that Hamilton's hand did hit Stabler's face mask. That was inadvertent. But Stabler was still in mid-throw. That is not "roughing the passer." The correct call would have been an inadvertent face mask call, a 5-yard penalty, which would have made it 4th & 13 on the Patriot 31, with a little over a minute to go. That doesn't mean the Raiders wouldn't have gotten the 1st down on the next play, and even if they had, it wouldn't have meant that they would have gone on to win. But it would have made things a lot harder for them. Dreith made a bad call.
The Raiders went on to win the Super Bowl. To this day, Patriot fans call this The Ben Dreith Game, and say they were robbed. There would be other incidents to come between these 2 teams, favoring each side.
Dreith was an original AFL official from 1960, who was accepted into the NFL's officiating ranks after the 1970 merger. This would remain the only game in which fans of a team said he robbed them. In a 1986 game, Marty Lyons of the New York Jets sacked Buffalo Bills quarterback Jim Kelly and punched him in the head. Dreith flagged him, and mistakenly identified the offending player as Mark Gastineau (who, to be fair, was better known for that kind of behavior), telling the crowd, "There's a persona foul, on Number 99 of the defense. After he tackled the quarterback, he's givin' him the business down there. That's a 15-yard penalty."
In 1990, having reached the mandatory retirement age of 65, he was demoted from referee (and thus, as they would say among baseball umpires, crew chief) to the instant replay booth. He refused to accept this, and was demoted to line judge, and then fired after the season. He sued, and later settled for $165,000. He died in 2021, at the age of 96, mostly forgotten -- but not by Patriot fans.
UPDATE: The Patriots have a team Hall of Fame. From their 1970s teams, they have inducted founding owner Billy Sullivan, quarterback Steve Grogan, running back Sam Cunningham, guard John Hannah, tackle Leon Gray, linebacker Steve Nelson, cornerback Mike Haynes, and broadcaster Gil Santos.
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December 18, 1976 was a Saturday. There was 1 other NFL Playoff game played that day: The Minnesota Vikings beat the Washington Redskins, 35-20 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.
There was a college football bowl game played that day: Oklahoma State beat Brigham Young University, 49-21, in the Tangerine Bowl, at the stadium of the same name in Orlando, Florida. The game and the stadium would later be renamed the Citrus Bowl, and the stadium is now named Camping World Stadium.
There were 8 games played in the National Basketball Association:
* The New York Knicks beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 115-113 at Madison Square Garden. Spencer Haywood had 35 points and 19 rebounds.
* The Golden State Warriors beat the Washington Bullets, 115-110 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.
* The Boston Celtics beat the Atlanta Hawks, 117-110 at The Omni in Atlanta.
* The New Orleans Jazz beat the Houston Rockets, 110-106 at The Summit in Houston. "Pistol" Pete Maravich scored 36 points. (The arena has since been converted into the Central Campus of the Lakewood Church, Dr. Joel Osteen's "megachurch.")
* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Indiana Pacers, 97-93 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.
* The Denver Nuggets beat the Chicago Bulls, 111-106 at the McNichols Arena in Denver.
* The Kansas City Kings beat the Phoenix Suns, 90-89 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.
* And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 115-111 in overtime at the Portland Memorial Coliseum. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scored 35 points and grabbed 16 rebounds. Bill Walton had 28 points and 26 rebounds. While the Blazers lost this game, they went on to win the NBA Championship.
The entire National Hockey League played that day, all 18 teams:
* In an "Original Six" matchup, the New York Rangers played the Chicago Black Hawks to a tie, 3-3 at the Chicago Stadium.
* The New York Islanders lost to the Buffalo Sabres, 4-2 at the Nassau Coliseum.
* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Colorado Rockies, 4-2 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.
* The Washington Capitals beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-3 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.
* The Cleveland Barons beat the Boston Bruins, 6-4 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio.
* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Atlanta Flames, 6-3 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.
* The Vancouver Canucks beat the Minnesota North Stars, 3-1 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.
* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the St. Louis Blues, 2-0 at the St. Louis Arena.
* And the Montreal Canadiens beat the Los Angeles Kings, 2-0 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.
There were 4 games played in the World Hockey Association:
* The New England Whalers beat the Birmingham Bulls, 6-2 at the Hartford Civic Center (now the PeoplesBank Arena).
* The Minnesota Fighting Saints beat the Cincinnati Stingers, 4-3 at the St. Paul Civic Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.
* The Calgary Cowboys beat the Quebec Nordiques, 4-2 at the Stampede Corral in Calgary.
* And the San Diego Mariners beat the Houston Aeros, 4-3 at the San Diego Sports Arena (now the Pechanga Arena).
Also, Arsenal beat Manchester United, 3-1 at Highbury in North London.
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