Utah player secures place in Football Follies

It happened when I was seven, one of my earliest recollections of watching pro football on TV. Vikings vs. 49ers. The Vikings wore purple pants and it must have been old Kezar Stadium in San Francisco, because the field was a quagmire.

“ … Completes it to Kilmer up at the 30-yard line … Kilmer driving for the first down … loses the football … it’s picked up by Jim Marshall … who is running the wrong way …

“Marshall is running the WRONG WAY! … And he’s running it into the end zone wrong way, thinks he’s scored a touchdown — he has scored a safety … ”

After his 66-yard wrong-way romp, Jim Marshall flipped the ball out of the end zone in celebration. No. 77 on the 49ers (Bruce Bosley) was the first to congratulate to him.

Mental blunders.

These things happen.

They even happen to the great ones, for Jim Marshall would set an NFL record by starting 270 consecutive games that stood until 2009, when Brett Favre started No 271.

So upon further review, one could certainly empathize with Kaelin Clay, the Utah football player who on the first play of the second quarter against Oregon on Saturday night was cruising to the end zone to complete a 79-yard touchdown catch and run, or so it appeared.

The vigilant side judge did not signal six points. He saw Clay nonchalantly drop the football behind before he broke the end zone plane.

The side judge threw his beanbag. A Utah player and an Oregon player briefly fought over a live ball before another Oregon player gained possession and ran 100 yards in the other direction for a touchdown.

These things happen.

At least when it happened to Jim Marshall — and to Cal’s All-America center Roy Riegels in the 1929 Rose Bowl — ESPN did not exist.

Unfortunately for Kaelin Clay, in 2014 ESPN is available in 97,736,000 U.S. households, and is broadcast in more than 200 countries. A lot of people witnessed his mental blunder, and they witnessed it live, in high definition.

Were Utah still in the Mountain West, he probably could have played it off, because the Mountain West has a lousy TV deal, and a lot of games are not shown on TV, at least not the kind of TV you can hang on a wall.

So years from now a lot of people probably are going to remember Kaelin Clay’s name, in the manner they remember Jim Marshall’s for running the wrong way, or Chris Webber’s for calling a timeout his team didn’t have, or Leon Lett’s for hot-dogging before reaching the end zone in the Super Bowl, or Larry Walker’s for giving the ball to a fan when he forgot how many outs there were, or DeSean Jackson’s for tossing a TD away against the Cowboys in much the same manner that Kaelin Clay did, except that Clay did not try to rub it in with an end zone dance.

Kaelin Clay acted as if he had been there before which he had, four times on kick returns alone this season.

I think this was why during the postgame news conference that Kyle Whittingham, the Utes coach, took the heat for Clay misjudging time and place.

Or it could be just because Whittingham is a class act.

“We’ve got to coach it better,” he said. “You haven’t taught it until the players have learned it. And if he hasn’t learned it, we haven’t taught it correctly. So we’ve got to do a better job as coaches on that.”

It was a big play. Instead of leading the mighty Ducks 14-0, the Utes found themselves tied at 7. Momentum had shifted. That much was true, Whittingham said.

“It really seemed to take the air out of things, but we did finally overcome it, psychologically, and continue to hang in there. We pulled to 30-27, and I liked our chances.”

Utah would lose, 51-27.

So now Kaelin Clay’s place in sports infamy is secure.

Whenever ESPN counts down embarrassing moments in sports, people will remember his name, although most may only remember him as “that guy from Utah who … ”

These things happen.

It can happen to anybody once.

Or twice.

The year before Leon Lett acted the fool in the Super Bowl, there was a snowy game played on Thanksgiving Day when the Cowboys blocked a game-winning field goal attempt by the Dolphins. Before possession officially changed making the Dallas victory official, all the Cowboys stood around and watched the blocked field goal ball spin like a top, all except one.

Leon Lett.

Lett tried to fall on the ball, which was unnecessary. Instead, he sort of smooshed it back to the Dolphins with his knee at the 1-yard line. Miami won the game.

Afterward, Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson said he felt bad for Leon Lett. But unlike Kyle Whittingham, he did not say losing that game was the coaches’ fault.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski