American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

, the Holy Roller was a controversial game-winning play by the

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Oakland from its founding in 1960 to 1981 and again from 1995 to 2019 before relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan area where they now play as the Las Vegas Raid ...

against the

San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers were a professional American football team that played in San Diego from 1961 until the end of the 2016 season, before relocating to Los Angeles, where the franchise had played its inaugural 1960 season. The team is now ...

on September 10, 1978, at

San Diego Stadium San Diego Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium on the west coast of the United States, in San Diego, California. The stadium opened in 1967 as San Diego Stadium and was known as Jack Murphy Stadium from 1981 to 1997. From 1997 to 2017, the stadiu ...

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

. It was officially ruled as a forward

fumble A fumble in gridiron football occurs when a player who has possession and control of the ball loses it before being downed (tackled), scoring, or going out of bounds. By rule, it is any act other than passing, kicking, punting, or successful ...

by Raiders

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ameri ...

Ken Stabler Kenneth Michael Stabler (December 25, 1945 – July 8, 2015) was an American professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 17 seasons, primarily with the Oakland Raiders. Nicknamed "Snake", he played col ...

that was recovered by his teammate,

tight end The tight end (TE) is a position in American football, arena football, and Canadian football, on the offense. The tight end is often a hybrid position with the characteristics and roles of both an offensive lineman and a wide receiver. Like ...

Dave Casper David John Casper (born February 2, 1952) nicknamed "the Ghost", is an American former football player best known for being a prominent member of the Oakland Raiders in the National Football League (NFL). He was a tight end and also played as a ...

, in the end zone for a

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Ameri ...

, giving Oakland the 21–20 win. However, there have been differing interpretations of how this play should have actually been ruled, and it has remained a controversial play for fans of both teams involved. The NFL amended its rules after the 1978 season to prevent a recurrence of the play. Chargers fans refer to the play as the Immaculate Deception.

The play

With 10 seconds left in the game, the Raiders had possession of the ball at the Chargers' 14-yard line, trailing 20–14. Raiders quarterback

took the snap and found himself about to be sacked by Chargers linebacker

Woodrow Lowe Woodrow Lowe (born June 9, 1954), is an American former professional football player who was a linebacker from 1976 to 1986 for the San Diego Chargers in the National Football League (NFL). Lowe played college football for the Alabama Crimson ...

on the 24-yard line. The ball came out of Stabler's hands and moved forward towards the Chargers' goal line. Raiders running back

Pete Banaszak Peter Andrew Banaszak (born May 21, 1944) is a former player of college and professional American football. A running back, he played college football at the University of Miami, and played professionally in the American Football League for the ...

appeared to try to recover the ball on the 12-yard line, but did not keep his footing, and pitched the ball with both hands even closer to the end zone. Raiders

was the next player to reach the ball but he also seemingly could not get a handle on it. He batted and kicked the ball into the end zone, where he fell on it for the game-tying touchdown as time ran out. With the ensuing extra point by placekicker Errol Mann, the Raiders won 21–20. According to the NFL rulebook, "If a runner intentionally fumbles forward, it is a forward pass." Also during the play, the game officials ruled that Banaszak and Casper's actions were legal because it was impossible to determine if they intentionally batted the ball forward, which would have been ruled a penalty. The

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...

(NFL) also supported referee

Jerry Markbreit Jerry Markbreit (born March 23, 1935) is a former American football referee in the National Football League (NFL) for 23 seasons and became one of the most recognizable referees in the game. Markbreit officiated football games for 43 seasons. F ...

's call that Stabler fumbled the ball instead of throwing it forward. For years, Stabler publicly stated that it was a fumble. However, in a 2008 interview on NFL Films, he was asked if he could convince the camera crew that he did not flip the ball forward. Stabler responded, "No, I can't convince you of that, because I did. I mean, what else was I going to do with it? Throw it out there, shake the dice." Banaszak and Casper also admitted that they deliberately batted the ball towards the end zone.

Effect on 1978 NFL season

Had the Chargers won this game — and, importantly, had all other games that season remained with the same outcome — they would have made the playoffs as one of the two wildcard teams, by virtue of a tiebreaker over the

Houston Oilers The Houston Oilers were a professional American football team that played in Houston from its founding in 1960 to 1996 before relocating to Memphis, and later Nashville, Tennessee becoming the Tennessee Titans. The Oilers began play in 1960 as ...

. Both the Chargers and Oilers would have finished with a 10–6 record, but as the Chargers' final game of the season was a 45-24 victory over the Oilers in Houston in week 16, the Chargers would have won the tiebreaker on a head-to-head matchup and clinched the fifth seed in the postseason. The final Houston-San Diego game therefore would have had direct playoff consequence, with the winner advancing to the playoffs and the loser being eliminated, rather than being the relatively meaningless game it ended up as, with the Chargers already eliminated and the Oilers already having clinched a wildcard berth. However, one direct consequence of San Diego’s poor start to the 1978 season (they were 1–4 after five weeks and 2–6 at the halfway mark) was the resignation of head coach

Tommy Prothro James Thompson "Tommy" Prothro Jr. (July 20, 1920 – May 14, 1995) was an American football coach. He was the head coach at Oregon State University from 1955 to 1964 and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) from 1965 to 1970, compili ...

and his replacement by former St. Louis Cardinals coach

Don Coryell Donald David Coryell (October 17, 1924 – July 1, 2010) was an American football coach, who coached in the National Football League (NFL) first with the St. Louis Cardinals from 1973 to 1977 and then the San Diego Chargers from 1978 to 1986. Wel ...

following a 24-3 loss to Green Bay in week 4. Had the Chargers won this game, the likelihood exists that, at 2–2 rather than 1–3, Prothro may not have chosen to resign as San Diego’s coach at that point. As Coryell’s coaching style and wide-open offensive attack (dubbed "Air Coryell") were crucial to the Chargers’ drastic turnaround in 1978, and subsequent playoff run from 1979 to 1982, it is possible that their loss in the Holy Roller game helped propel San Diego into one of the most successful periods in the franchise’s history; and equally possible that a Prothro-coached team throughout 1978 may not have put together the same run of late-season victories to be in the position of playing a "win-and-in/loser-goes-home" game against the Oilers. As for Oakland, their uneven and ultimately disappointing 1978 season resulted in the team missing the playoffs for the first time since 1971. Losing the Holy Roller game, with all other outcomes remaining as they were, would simply have eliminated the Raiders from playoff contention earlier in the season. The Chargers would more directly avenge the outcome of this game with a late-game 27-23 victory over the Raiders in Oakland during week 9, kick-starting their 7–1 second season-half rally.

Reaction

Chargers fans responded with T-shirts depicting a blindfolded referee signaling a touchdown along with the words ''Immaculate Deception''. The nickname was a play off the

Immaculate Reception The Immaculate Reception is one of the most famous plays in the history of American football. It occurred in the AFC divisional playoff game of the National Football League (NFL), between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Oakland Raiders (now Las ...

, a play that went against the Raiders in the 1972 playoffs against

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylv ...

. In response to the Holy Roller, the league passed new rules in the off-season, restricting fumble advances by the offense. If a player fumbles after the

two-minute warning In most levels of professional American football, the two-minute warning is a suspension of play that occurs when two minutes remain on the game clock in each half of a game, i.e., near the end of the second and fourth quarters, and overtime. It ...

in a half/overtime, or on fourth down at any time during the game, only the fumbling player can recover and advance the ball. If that player's teammate recovers the ball during those situations, it is placed back at the spot of the fumble, unless it was a recovery for a loss, in which case the ball is dead and placed at the point of recovery. The Holy Roller play was directly referenced on December 14, 2014 in response to a critical play in the

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. It is the thir ...

' loss to the

Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. T ...

. When

Aaron Rodgers Aaron Charles Rodgers (born December 2, 1983) is an American football quarterback for the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL). Rodgers began his college football career at Butte College in 2002 before transferring to the ...

had the ball knocked out of his hand by

Mario Williams Mario Jerrel Williams (born January 31, 1985) is a former American football defensive end. He played college football for North Carolina State University, and was selected first overall by the Houston Texans in the 2006 NFL Draft. A four-time ...

, it rolled backwards into the end zone and came to a complete stop; Packer RB

Eddie Lacy Edward Darwin Lacy Jr. (born June 2, 1990) is a former American football running back. He played college football at Alabama, where he was a member of three BCS National Championship teams in the 2009, 2011, and 2012 seasons. He was drafted by ...

picked up the ball and tried to run with it, but the referee approached quickly, waving his hands to declare the play dead, and after talking to the back judge, signaled a

safety Safety is the state of being "safe", the condition of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk. Meanings There are two slightly dif ...

for Buffalo. The NFL Director of Officiating said that since the Holy Roller rules were in place, the only player who could have picked up the fumble and advanced it for Green Bay was the original fumbler (Rodgers), and the safety call was correct.

References

Sources

*''Total Football: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League'' ()
Audio of the Holy Roller radio play-by-play by Bill King

External links