Theismann: From a screen to a scream

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The Times’ Sam Farmer is in Tampa, Fla., this week covering the Super Bowl.
In a series a Fabulous Forum posts, he looks back at the 1983 Raiders.
You can access his Raiders posts by clicking here and all his Super Bowl posts by clicking here.

‘I’m at the sidelines, I’m talking to Joe [Gibbs] and say, ‘What do you want to run?’ And he tells me rocket screen. I said, ‘I just don’t feel good about putting the ball up in the air this far backed up with hardly any time left.’ He says, ‘We have two timeouts.’ And I’m thinking, ‘So what? There’s no time left.’

‘But I think, ‘Well, Joe’s a great coach. We’re in the Super Bowl. I’ll listen to him.’ I started walking away and I get about 5 feet away, and I turn around. I’ll never forget, he points at me and says, ‘Run it.’

‘So now I’m jogging on the field and I just don’t feel good about this. I don’t like this. It doesn’t make sense. ... But it didn’t matter. The sovereign lord has made the decision, so I’m just going to go with it.’

So Theismann takes the snap, drops back and sees the Raiders are in a zone defense. What he didn’t see was that the speedy Squirek, who had replaced Matt Millen for a play, was a spy, in man coverage on Joe Washington.

‘As soon as I get to here...’ Theismann said, simulating the moment the football leaves his fingertips. ‘I’m thinking -- remember ‘Black Sunday’ where they shoot the football out of the air with a high-powered rifle? -- I’m thinking, ‘I hope somebody’s up there with a high-powered rifle, and they’re going to shoot this sucker out of the air before it lands where I think it’s going to go.’ ... I saw it in slow motion. It became a nightmare.’

-- Sam Farmer