Watching Leon Lett trying to perfect his slide still to this day haunts me!1993:
LETT IT SNOW
Miami Dolphins 16, Dallas Cowboys 14
Snowstorms anywhere in the lower 48 states on Thanksgiving Day are somewhat unusual. A snowstorm in Dallas on Thanksgiving Day is downright freakish, which just added to the odd milieu shrouding the Dolphins' trip to Texas Stadium.
Thanks to injuries suffered by Dan Marino and Scott Mitchell, Miami was down to its third quarterback, Steve DeBerg, a man who began the season as a starter — for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But that didn't keep the Dolphins from grabbing an early lead and keeping matters close against a Cowboys team that was on its way to a second consecutive world championship.
But what stands out from the game isn't DeBerg's heroic effort, or the Dolphins' blanket pass coverage that limited Michael Irvin to just 31 yards, or Keith Byars' impromptu flashback to childhood when he flopped to the frigid end-zone turf to make snow angels after a 77-yard touchdown run.
No, the man of the day, for the wrong reasons, was Leon Lett. Then a third-year player, Lett seemed to be a defensive lineman with a flair for the dramatic flaw, shown when a sure touchdown in Super Bowl XXVII was stripped away by the Bills' Don Beebe at the goal line as he held the ball out. On Thanksgiving 1993, he just couldn't keep himself away from a blocked Pete Stoyanovich field-goal attempt late in the fourth quarter with the Dolphins trailing by one.
Deflected by Jimmie Jones, the ball skipped to the Dallas 7-yard-line. As long as no Cowboy touched the ball, the Cowboys would have assumed possession, a mere kneel-down away from victory. But Lett wanted something more. He attempted to pick up the ball, but instead slid through the snow into it. When he touched the ball, it became live once again, and Miami's Jeff Dellenbach picked it up with three seconds left.
"I grabbed Troy (Aikman) and we were hugging, then they said they had the ball," Irvin told the media in the locker room after the game. "It was all so strange."
Given the second — and shorter — chance, Stoyanovich hammered home the game-winning points. Dallas was left with its most stunning loss in recent years; Miami with perhaps its unlikeliest win.
"Eleven guys didn't do what we really needed to do," special teams coach Joe Avezzano told the Dallas Morning News in the wake of the loss. "We had 10 guys getting away from the ball, and we had one who didn't. I'm not sure anyone can explain why."
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