Don Criqui's call of that field goal was one of the most amazing, and screwy ever. This was in the days when NFL goal posts were still on goal line, rather than the back of the end zone. The LOS was on the Saints own 44. So he lined up to kick an end of the game field goal on his own 37 yard line.
Criqui begins the play incredulously laughing at the Saints lining up to try this FG. Then as the ball is in the air, his take goes from ridicule to going crazy as the ball clears the uprights.
Tom Dempsey overcame a lot to play pro football. That included the NFL individually ruling on his specific flat toed shoe that went barely past his ankle. He was an erratic kicker and because of that, his career included five different teams over 11 seasons. That play, when it shows up as a replay somewhere, still makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck. In those days perhaps the most incredible athletic moment any of us knew, was Bob Beamon's 29 feet plus long jump in the Olympics that bested the existing world record by almost two feet.
But in my mind, Dempsey's kick was second. I believe it was 1970, his last year with the Saints. He beat the existing NFL record by 7 yards.
But despite leaving New Orleans a decade before his career ended, he lived in New Orleans, which is one of the four or five cities in the country with the most COVID problems. And he was diagnosed seven years ago, with dementia, so he had substantial medical issues.
RIP
