Post by TheShadow on Aug 26, 2009 3:52:44 GMT -5
www.nola.com
by Peter Finney, The Times-Picayune
When you think about it, all Jerry Jones, owner of the Cowboys, had to do was make a brief long-distance call, Arlington, Texas, to Hattiesburg, Miss.
Ray Guy would have been more than happy to pick up the phone and offer Jones some advice, from the voice of experience.
You're building a $1.2 billion stadium, showplace of the planet, and you want to be sure you've taken care of the details. Well, Cowboys Stadium opened the other day and, while the reviews were glowing, there was one embarrassing moment that left the owner, let's say, with his Cowboy jaw ajar.
The Tennessee punter, A.J. Trapasso, lofted a kick in the third quarter that struck the high-definition screen suspended 90 feet above the playing field.
Titans Coach Jeff Fisher threw his red challenge flag.
"The officials didn't see the ball hit the screen," said Fisher, "This can become a problem."
Jones saw no problem. "If you hit the screen, you just kick it over."
The league is looking into it.
When Guy watched the replay, he was suddenly back in the Superdome, reliving memories, engulfed in laughter.
Guy is a former All-Pro punter whose 14-year career with the Raiders merited strong Hall of Fame consideration. He's remembered as the man who made "hang time" a conversation piece.
"If Mr. Jones had called," said the Southern Miss great, drafted in the first round by the Raiders in 1973, "I could have told him some stories."
Like the time he became the first punter to hit the gondola approximately 90 feet above the field in the early years of the Dome. It was during the Pro Bowl after the 1976 season, before that postseason fixture found a home in Hawaii.
"No one had hit the gondola in a regular-season game," Guy said. "I hit it a few times warming up before the Pro Bowl, hoping I'd get a chance. It came in the third quarter. I was punting from around the 10-yard line, and I had Pro Bowl rules going for me -- that is, you didn't rush the punter unless he fumbled the snap. Well, I had a good angle and I got into it real good. From the moment it left my foot, I felt it would either hit the screen or go over it."
The rules called for a re-kick. Whereupon Guy promptly delivered a sky-climbing 60-yarder.
Five Januarys later Guy was back in the Dome, this time with the Raiders, getting ready to play the Eagles in Super Bowl XV.
"We came to the Dome for a walk-through on Friday," Guy said. "I looked up and there was that gondola, still where I remembered it. I told one of the Superdome people, 'I hope you're not going to leave that thing where it is for the game.' And I was told, 'Don't worry, it's out of play, no one's going to hit it.'¤"
At the time, Guy was holding four footballs.
"Watch this," he said.
One after another, he punted four footballs that bounced off the replay screen.
"When we returned for the game, they had hoisted that gondola up near the roof. It was definitely out of play."
Two Titans punters left Cowboys Stadium last week convinced something had to be done. Trapasso, whose punt made history of sorts, predicted when San Diego comes to play in Arlington in December, strong-legged Mike Scifres of the Chargers "might put a hole in the screen" unless it is raised.
Veteran Craig Hentrich, whose punts hit the video board in warmups, couldn't understand how the architects allowed this to happen.
"You've got some punters in this league who won't be able to punt if it's not raised," he said.
Meanwhile, here at home, Dave Dixon, daddy of the Dome, chuckled as he took blame for the gondola.
"The reason the Superdome has stood the test of time is we had the best architect in the world, Buster Curtis," Dixon said. "The gondola was one of my crazy ideas going way back, when the Superdome was just a dream. I was in Tiger Stadium for an LSU-Ole Miss game in the '60s and I left my seat to get a soft drink and wound up missing the most exciting play of the game, a long punt return by Joe Labruzzo, who was tackled on the 1-yard line. Tiger fans went crazy for the only time that day because LSU lost by a big score. And I missed the play.
"It sold me on the idea, if you're going to have a domed stadium, you had to have a screen for replay. It wasn't long before, I was in Switzerland talking to people about the idea. Which would lead to a bunch of screens hanging from the ceiling of the Superdome.
"I hope Jerry Jones can work things out. I guess it proves you can spend $1.2 billion and still have a problem."