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And mostly, successful Hail Marys have been as rare as lunar landings. Colts quarterback Jim Harbaugh almost made history in the 1995 AFC title game, but instead wound up with a painfully close miss against the Steelers. There was, of course, the “Miracle at Michigan.” Doug Flutie comes to mind his final-play completion to Gerard Phelan helped upstart Boston College defeat Miami in 1984 and kick-started a career that took Flutie to five NFL and three Canadian Football League teams over the span of two decades.

The best chance for a miracle score would come - or so the thought went - off a tipped ball that ricocheted to a receiver who was in the right place at the right time. Receivers were coached to bunch up in a section of the end zone, quarterbacks were told to throw it in that direction. Over the next several decades, the play was refined, but the name stuck. In that situation, he basically drew up a play in the sand, looked off the Vikings safety (Hall of Famer Paul Krause, who holds the record for career interceptions with 81) and found Pearson in single coverage, where the receiver slowed down to make the catch.Įxplaining the TD afterward, Staubach said, “I closed my eyes and said a Hail Mary.” “And, golly, maybe the next 10 in a row he throws, he’s not going to complete it, but right now he’s on a hot streak.”įootball was different when Staubach threw his touchdown to Drew Pearson to win a divisional-round playoff game. “There’s a belief on the team, too, that he can make it happen,” Staubach said. “Because he’s done it before, you’re thinking, `You never know,'” said Roger Staubach, the Hall of Fame Cowboys quarterback who famously coined the term `Hail Mary’ for the desperation heave he used to beat Minnesota in 1975. The plays have resulted in touchdowns no one could’ve expected, though maybe now, they should. The ball has dropped on the trajectory of a javelin from the sky and landed in a Green Bay receiver’s hands.

Three times over the past 13 months, including last week against the Giants, the Packers quarterback has dropped back at the end of a half, reared back and thrown the ball high toward the end zone. These days, Aaron Rodgers is turning the Hail Mary into touchdowns - and doing so at such a rate that his high-in-the-sky heaves into the end zone feel more like routine, and less like a miracle. Not so long ago, it was a one-in-a-million play, the sort of thing a player or fan would pray about.