How One Packer Fan Beat Goodell’s Lawyers on “The Lambeau Leap”

0
117

It’s always fun to find what I call “Easter eggs” on the internet. Little suprises, that remind you sharp minded people out there are listening, watching, and thinking the same things you are!

This topic came up on the show, thanks to Les Miles of LSU who had said he’ll make any LSU player who dares to do the infamous “Lambeau Leap” (an automatic 15 yard penalty in college for excessive celebration) WALK home to Baton Rouge after their game against the Badgers.

So I go and find the ORIGINAL Lambeau Leap by LeRoy Butler, and watch the video. Good stuff! I then read the notes under the video, when WHAT to my delight to I see? This….

“… (here’s how to) download the video in case the Red-Headed Spokes-Ape tries to remove this again!”

RED HEADED SPOKES APE!!!

By golly, that’s GOTTA be a Czabe listener! My nickname for ol’ Roger is starting to get around a bit! Wooo hoooo!

Sure enough, I got more of the story from the man himself who beat Roger’s legal minions… He writes…

Hey Czabe,

I just found out you had mentioned my Lambeau Leap video on Bob & Brian yesterday; it was pretty awesome to hear you guys talk about it and the ensuing NFL related drama…

Yeah, the NFL tried to take it down – oddly enough a few days before leap day this year; just before the Packers used part of my youtube clip (I guess nobody has footage of that other than me?) to honor that first leap in some contrived marketing crap, but since i had mixed in the audio of the Packers’ radio broadcast in place of the godawful NBC announcers onto that fateful VHS tape back in 1993, it’s an original video, so youtube told the NFL to go pound sand after they tried to take down the video and the NFL can’t file a copyright takedown on it ever again! Most of the other nfl videos are just rips of the tv broadcast, and they automatically scan for certain stuff to take them down, and youtube agrees with the obvious copyright claim, and bye-bye video!

I beat the NFL – IN YOUR FACE TOM BRADY!!!

Oh, and #moresolly.

Keep up the awesome work, glad I could provide you with a nice sized hunk of coal to shovel on the sports radio fire in the morning!

I uploaded a few full games from that era under “GBP Full Games” on youtube; but the NFL put a stop to that real quick, I’m betting that must be as close as I’m going to get to having Roger’s minions drag me out of a warm bed on a cold Wisconsin morning!

Nice and tidy.

Dana Miller

Oh, isn’t that sweet! Of course, in the Packer PXP audio, you hear both announcers Jim Irwin and Max McGee point out two parts of the play that looked to be 50/50 calls – at best!

1. Was the receiver tackled and down before the ball came flying out?
2. Did Reggie White’s heel clip the sideline before lateralling to Butler?

At one point, one of them even says… “This will probably bring back replay…”

Well, that play in particular didn’t bring it back, but the public’s (and the league’s) fetish with trying to get everything “right” in a chaotic game of 22 men colliding violently with each other for 60 minutes, eventually did.

To which I say: “Feh. You can have it!”

I think the spontaneous joy of that play, outweighs any niggling questions of its 100% purity. And so do others. To wit….

Czabe,

I first heard you when Bob and Brian was syndicated in my area, and I knew you were legit when you broke down the Marshawn Lynch, “I ain’t never seen no talking winning nothing”

I caught you on the Bob and Brian podcast talking about the Lambeau Leap origin. I can’t BELIEVE you missed the BEST part of the play…

Vince Evans throws the pass, and the receiver catches the ball, knee down, and fumbles. Play continues. Reggie White picks up the ball and while getting tackled and looking for someone to lateral to, steps out of bounds before LeRoy Butler takes the ball, play continues, to the end zone and ultimately leaps into the stands. The best part..NO REPLAY!!! LeRoy scores, leaps, gets the ball, and the field goal team trots on the kick the extra point. Just. Like. That. Imagine if today’s thin skinned refs would have worked the game. The whistled would have been blown as soon as Evans had gotten touched. The replay review would have taken forever…the leap would have been forgotten.

I once was a replay believer, but every day I’m coming to your side of the fence.

Thanks for getting up early so I don’t have to.

Wayne Boardman

Agreed. 1000%. To me, that play was *basically* called correctly. It was mostly a fumble, and White’s right foot was mostly in bounds. If it wasn’t enough to see and call with the naked eye in real time speed, it’s not worth picking apart via frame-by-frame video.

Had replay been in effect, WHO KNOWS what the call would have ultimately been? The pass never appears to hit the ground – at least to my eyes, on the fuzzy 480p standard definition broadcast. So what was it?

You know what it was? I highly entertaining play, in a meaningless game of tackle football, produced and executed for our entertainment. It was not life or death. The free world did not hinge on getting that ONE play, absolutely correct.

Had the play been overturned, would the “Lambeau Leap” have gone on to the same level of fame and legend as it enjoys today?

Hard to say. I’m just glad it worked out like it did!

BLOG_lambeauleap2

BLOG_lambeauleap3

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here