I was a Raiders season ticket holder (Section 330, upper deck off the corner of the end zone), but of course the game was in Pittsburgh, so I saw it on TV rather than in person. To this day I have never seen Harris catch that ball; the catch is out of frame on all the replays. I don’t really dispute that he caught it before it hit the ground, but it sure looked that way at the time.

You’re right about Tatum playing the man instead of the ball. There was a reason they called him the Assassin—just ask Darryl Stingley. But for that very reason, I’m not convinced Tatum ever touched the ball. Under the NFL rules at the time, a pass couldn’t be deflected from one offensive player to another without being touched by a defender; so if Tatum didn’t touch it, it should have been ruled an incomplete pass.

Also, looking at the replay, Oakland linebacker Phil Villapiano, who had pursued Harris all the way from the line of scrimmage, was clearly clipped by one of the Pittsburgh receivers after the catch. (Can’t quite make out his number on the replay, but I think it was John McMakin, #89.) Yet another reason the touchdown should have been nullified.

None of this to take anything away from Harris, who was not only one of the greatest power runners I’ve ever seen (second only to the incomparable Jim Brown), but a great gentleman as well. RIP, Franco, you left us too soon.