Catching up with a legendary game

Posted Sep 23, 2009 by Bob D'Angelo

Updated Sep 23, 2009 at 10:17 PM

Gary Myers was in the press box at Candlestick Park on Jan. 10, 1982, a beat writer for the Dallas Morning News covering the Cowboys in the NFC Championship Game against the San Francisco 49ers. He got a firsthand view of “The Catch” — Joe Montana’s touchdown pass to Dwight Clark in the final minute that sent the 49ers to their first Super Bowl.

Twenty-seven years later, Myers has put that play into perspective, asserting that this game represented a changing of the guard among the NFL’s elite.

He’s right. And the title covers it all: “The Catch: One Play, Two Dynasties, and the Game That Changed the NFL.” (Crown Publishing, $26).

The Cowboys, coached by Tom Landry, had been to five Super Bowls during the 1970s. San Francisco, in its third year under Bill Walsh, had risen from a 2-14 mark in 1979 to contend for a berth in Super Bowl XVI.

San Francisco’s 28-27 victory was capped by Montana’s rollout pass off his back foot to a leaping Clark in the back of the end zone. It was a pattern that was in the 49ers’ playbook, but had rarely worked. To this day, many of the Cowboys believed it was just a busted play and that Montana was throwing the ball away.

It’s hard to sustain a 252-page book around one play, so Myers wisely builds around it. His narrative focuses on what happened to key players in the years before and after the game. He bounces around quite a bit, and at times the narrative is unsettling and hard to follow, but the stories are certainly compelling.

The most dramatic tale involves the player Clark beat to catch the winning touchdown in January 1982: rookie Everson Walls. In 2007, the former Dallas defensive back donated one of his kidneys to save the life of teammate Ron Springs, whose body was ravaged by diabetes.

Other stories include the bonding between Montana and Clark, and nature of the football business that strained their relationship; quarterback Danny White, who led the Cowboys to three straight NFC title games — and lost them all; and 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo, who missed his franchise’s signature moment when a policeman on a horse at field level obscured his view.

There is plenty of rich detail and excellent insight from members of both teams.

There are some glitches, too. Myers notes that Franco Harris’ “Immaculate Reception” took place during the 1972 AFC title game, when in fact, it was the shocking climax to a first-round playoff game against the Raiders.

He also writes that Bill Stanfill coached the Saints toward the end of the 1980 season, when in fact, it was Dick Stanfel who was calling the shots.

At times, some of Myers’ play-by-play in the Cowboys-49ers game also seems a bit disjointed, and on at least one occasion, a different score is given in two places after describing the same touchdown play.

The 49ers would go on to become the team of the 1980s, while the Cowboys would begin a downward spiral that would end with Landry being fired when Jerry Jones bought the team.

The balance of power in the NFL changed that day in San Francisco, and Myers, now a writer for the New York Daily News, does a nice job bringing this game to life and putting it into proper perspective.