Bumble recovery

Sporting News, The, August 1, 1994 by Bob Glauber

As he walked slowly off the field - his helmet cradled under one arm, his sweat-soaked head bowed, his eyes welling with tears as he stared at the snow-covered turf - Leon Lett couldn't believe what he had just done. Please, please, no, he kept telling himself. Pleeease, no, not again.

Unfortunately for Lett, the Cowboys' third-year defensive tackle, it was happening again. Visions of his last-minute blunder and one last look at the final score were constant reminders.

Lett finished the lonely walk and headed straight for the trainer's room, where he wailed like a lost child as he felt his world crumbling beneath the weight of another nationally televised embarrassment.

Thanksgiving Day, 1993. Texas Stadium is covered with ice and snow from a freakish storm. With Dallas attempting to hang onto a 14-13 lead, Cowboys defensive tackle Jimmie Jones gets a hand on Dolphins kicker Pete Stoyanovich's 41-yard field-goal attempt with 15 seconds remaining. The ball caroms downfield and spins in the ice while Dallas linebacker Ken Norton waves his hands wildly and screams for his teammates to leave the ball alone.

Lett races in from the top of your television screen and inexplicably tries to fall on the ball, only to accidentally kick it deeper into Dallas territory. The Dolphins recover at the 1, Stoyanovich gets another chance - and makes a 19-yard field goal for a 16-14 victory.

"I was just trying to cover up the ball, but I slipped and it hit my foot," Lett says, the pain of the moment having eased over the months. "I felt terrible about it because I didn't know what would happen. It was a big game, and I didn't know if we'd win it or not."

Lett was so distraught that he hid in his Dallas apartment, taking no phone calls. Even Rachel Lett - worried about her son's mental state - couldn't contact him for several hours.

"I was thinking to myself, |Why does this have to happen to me on national TV,'" Lett says. "Two times in a row. Why?"

It was a play that won't be forgotten soon. Lett certainly won't forget it, nor will he forget another embarrassing play he made 10 months earlier in the final minutes of the Super Bowl, when he recovered a fumble and was racing toward the Bins' end zone, so delirious about the prospect of scoring a touchdown in his first Super Bowl that he held the ball out with his right hand and started to dance in for the score.

But then, from nowhere, Bills wide receiver Don Beebe knocked the ball from Lett's hand. The play didn't keep the Cowboys from winning - it kept them from finishing with 62 points - but it was there for everyone to see, and laugh at.

"I look back on it now, and I say, Why didn't I just tuck the ban in and finish the play?'" Lett says. "I never did anything Eke that before. My coaches always taught me to finish the play. But I just got caught up in the moment."

No matter what people around Lett say, the perception of him in the public eye is going to remain the same - until Lett makes them forget those two gaffes with years of outstanding service. Lett understands that.

In all, the two plays lasted about 20 seconds. Yet in that microscopic span of time, Lett earned a distinct place in America's consciousness, even if it was for the wrong reasons. Mention the name Leon Lett to most football fans, and they will point to those two nationally televised bloopers.

Funny, but if you ask those same fans to name the player who made the play that turned the game around for the Cowboys in the last Super Bowl, many of them probably couldn't tell you.

Guess what? It was Lett who fought off two blocks on the third play of the second half and ripped the ball out of running back Thurman Thomas' hands at the Buffalo 46. The ball was recovered by Dallas safety James Washington, who ran it back for a touchdown to tie the score, 13-13. Buffalo didn't score another point; the Cowboys won, 30-13, for their second consecutive championship.

"I was just itching to make a play, cause a fumble or get a sack, anything," says Lett, who has not spoken publicly about his Super Bowl performance until now. "Then James Washington came up to me at halftime, saying (the Bills) were trying to hit us with a lot of quick plays, moving the ball. James just said, |Get me the ball.'"

Which is precisely what Lett did. But in the process - in that split second when he fought off the block of Bins center Kent Hun and reached in to hit Thomas - Lett had purged himself of some of the demons that had threatened to turn his career into some kind of NFL sideshow.

"In my mind, he should be remembered more for causing Thurman Thomas to fumble in the Super Bowl than for those two plays," Cowboys safety Bill Bates says. "When you look at a player like Leon Lett, I truly believe that as time goes on, he's going to be as good as anybody."

But only time will help convince the public of that.

The more Lett wreaks havoc on opposing quarterbacks, running backs and offensive linemen, the more he's known for being a great football player instead of a charter member of Football Follies.