Joe Flacco Tackle Ted Ginn Jr. Mandate Would Not Have Worked, The 1954 Cotton Bowl Explains
By Kyle Kensing
With his Baltimore Ravens leading Super Bowl XLVII by a field goal and a free kick following a safety forthcoming, a mic’d up Joe Flacco was understandably nervous. Waiting to receive the kick was Ted Ginn Jr., an electric returner with a track record for touchdown returns in championship games.
Flacco posited a question: were Ginn to break away from the coverage and have nothing but turf ahead en route to the end zone, what recourse would San Francisco have if a Raven came from the sidelines to tackle him short of the goal line?
The play didn’t come to that, of course, but the 1954 Cotton Bowl had one that did.
Rice Owls running back Dicky Moegle scored a 75-yard touchdown rush to even his team with the Alabama Crimson Tide. On Rice’s next possession, Moegle got the call again. And again, Moegle broke away from the Tide defense.
But as Moegle crossed in Alabama territory, Tommy Lewis — who happened to score Alabama’s only points of the Cotton Bowl — walloped Moegel. The problem? Lewis was not part of the play.
His “12th Man Tackle” was counted as a touchdown.