Duane Thomas fumble in SB V

[Bryan]

I just watched the actual TV broadcast of Duane Thomas' fumble at the goal-line in Super Bowl V. Thomas is spinning toward the endzone with Colt players hanging on him...Mike Curtis and Jim Duncan force the ball out...Dave Manders is laying on the ground and the ball appears to go directly to him...Billy Ray Smith falls onto Manders' back...the ref immediately and emphatically signals the ball Baltimore's way...there is no pile-up...the is no possible way a Colt player even touched the ball once it left Thomas' possession...a truly baffling and terrible call.

Perhaps NFL Films was being "pro-league/Rozelle" and didn't want to make a big deal about the bad call, but in their highlights you get very little feel as to what actually happened. You have a mash-up of clips, and the only hint you get that anything screwy happened was seeing Manders kneeling with the football as the other players are heading to the sidelines. In reading accounts of the play, I've seen/read the forced fumble attributed to Billy Ray Smith (he was nowhere near Thomas), I've read that Billy Ray Smith stole the ball from Manders (Smith never touched the ball), I've read that Manders stole the ball from Smith, and all accounts led me to believe that after Thomas fumbled the ball a big scrum erupted and the officials had difficulty in sorting out the mess. None of this was/is the case in actuality.

[Gary Najman]

30 years ago I recorded all NFL Films Super Bowl until then in my Beta recorder. I was amazed to see Manders knelt with the ball, but I recall in the highlights seeing Craig Morton and another player arguing to line judge Jack Fette (no. 39) who awarded the ball to the Colts immediatily after Duane Thomas' fumble.

[BD Sullivan]

I just watched the actual TV broadcast of Duane Thomas' fumble at the goal-line in Super Bowl V. Thomas is spinning toward the endzone with Colt players hanging on him...Mike Curtis and Jim Duncan force the ball out...Dave Manders is laying on the ground and the ball appears to go directly to him...Billy Ray Smith falls onto Manders' back...the ref immediately and emphatically signals the ball Baltimore's way...there is no pile-up...the is no possible way a Colt player even touched the ball once it left Thomas' possession...a truly baffling and terrible call.

Perhaps NFL Films was being "pro-league/Rozelle" and didn't want to make a big deal about the bad call, but in their highlights you get very little feel as to what actually happened. You have a mash-up of clips, and the only hint you get that anything screwy happened was seeing Manders kneeling with the football as the other players are heading to the sidelines. In reading accounts of the play, I've seen/read the forced fumble attributed to Billy Ray Smith (he was nowhere near Thomas), I've read that Billy Ray Smith stole the ball from Manders (Smith never touched the ball), I've read that Manders stole the ball from Smith, and all accounts led me to believe that after Thomas fumbled the ball a big scrum erupted and the officials had difficulty in sorting out the mess. None of this was/is the case in actuality.

Steve Sabol admitted that SB III was biased toward the NFL side, with the Baltimore "comeback" hyped, even though it was never as close as the film hints.

[JKelly]

I just watched the actual TV broadcast of Duane Thomas' fumble at the goal-line in Super Bowl V. Thomas is spinning toward the endzone with Colt players hanging on him...Mike Curtis and Jim Duncan force the ball out...Dave Manders is laying on the ground and the ball appears to go directly to him...Billy Ray Smith falls onto Manders' back...the ref immediately and emphatically signals the ball Baltimore's way...there is no pile-up...the is no possible way a Colt player even touched the ball once it left Thomas' possession...a truly baffling and terrible call.

Perhaps NFL Films was being "pro-league/Rozelle" and didn't want to make a big deal about the bad call, but in their highlights you get very little feel as to what actually happened. You have a mash-up of clips, and the only hint you get that anything screwy happened was seeing Manders kneeling with the football as the other players are heading to the sidelines. In reading accounts of the play, I've seen/read the forced fumble attributed to Billy Ray Smith (he was nowhere near Thomas), I've read that Billy Ray Smith stole the ball from Manders (Smith never touched the ball), I've read that Manders stole the ball from Smith, and all accounts led me to believe that after Thomas fumbled the ball a big scrum erupted and the officials had difficulty in sorting out the mess. None of this was/is the case in actuality.

My recollection of this play is that the ref believed his ears not his eyes. Apparently Billy Ray Smith is screaming "White Ball, White Ball !!" even though it was obvious that Manders had possesion of the ball. So the ref signaled what he heard not what actually occurred.

[JoeZagorski]

I talked to former Baltimore Colts running back Tom Nowatzke a few years ago. He claimed to me that Billy Ray Smith recovered the ball, and that every one of his teammates agreed with him on that. I told him that Colts cornerback Jim Duncan was officially credited with the recovery in the statistics. He denied that, and re-stated his belief that Billy Ray Smith made the recovery. Several angles from NFL Films makes it hard to believe that Duncan made the recovery. He's in the midst of the players in the pileup, but it's doubtful that he could have wedged his hands through the other bodies to grasp the ball. I know that if you talk to any Cowboys player, they'll tell you to a man that Dave Manders made the recovery.

Joe Zagorski