Rip Tom Dempsey

[biggunsbob]

Tom Dempsey, NFL kicker who set a record for the longest field goal, dies of coronavirus. He was 73 years old. He was diagnosed with dementia in 2012.

Rip Tom. Great kick from a guy with half a foot. I really wanted him to miss that kick !

I was in a body cast when he made the record field goal in 1970. (19-17)
It was the middle Loss of a three game losing streak that made the lions 5-4 after a 5-1 start.
Lions won the last five games and were the first wild card team for the NFC.



https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/05/us/tom-dempsey-nfl-kicker-dies-coronavirus-trnd/index.html

 

[biggunsbob]

Last four plays of the game.

Earl Mann gives the Lions a 17-16 lead.
Kick- off and return.
Billy Kilmer’s pass that Wr barely got his feet in.
63 yard kick to win


https://youtu.be/cjqiq4S9bqA

 

[byco42]

When Errol Mann made his FG, my 13-year-old self figured the game was won. Stunned disbelief does not begin to describe what I felt when Dempsey answered.

 

[biggunsbob]

Me too. I was 9. Yup I really Thought game was over

 

[tinselwolverine]

Had just turned 10 years old.

Might be the first season I had followed the Lions.

For some reason I’ve been remembering that game as having happened in Detroit.

Don’t remember where I was watching when the game ended on that play.

I was probably either at home or somewhere else.

 

[tinselwolverine]

I was in a body cast when he made the record field goal in 1970.

At the time, I was wondering why you didn’t block it.

After all these years - a half century this fall - I finally have the answer

 

[tinselwolverine]

Tom Dempsey, NFL kicker who set a record for the longest field goal, dies of coronavirus. He was 73 years old. He was diagnosed with dementia in 2012

Man, I hope there?s a deadly pandemic around to kill me when I get dementia, and I hope I don?t have to wait almost a decade for that to happen.

 

[tinselwolverine]

When Errol Mann made his FG, my 13-year-old self figured the game was won. Stunned disbelief does not begin to describe what I felt when Dempsey answered.

I think everyone of any age probably felt pretty much the same.

I think the blocked punt MSU touchdown Harbaugh’s first season even more so.

Cordell Stewart to Michael Westbrook too.

EDIT: I guess it was actually a fumble, not a blocked kick.

 

[Mitchrapp]

Metal foot, just their luck. Rest in peace.

 

[byco42]

I think everyone of any age probably felt pretty much the same.

I think the blocked punt MSU touchdown Harbaugh?s first season even more so.

Cordell Stewart to Michael Westbrook too.

I actually "called" the punt and the Stewart TDs.

RE: Stewart, I said out loud "can he throw the ball 75 yards?" And the punt was even more prescient, as I admonished a group for young ladies for celebrating prematurely as Michigan had the ball with about 1:00 to play. They labeled me "cynical."

"I've seen enough sports to realize that anything can happen, and it does." was my reply.