There have been plenty of fun games and interesting NFL moments on Thanksgiving through the years (and plenty of bad games too, but that's another story).
But if you were to ask your average NFL fan what his top Thanksgiving football memory is, if he's old enough he's going to say two words: Leon Lett.
There has been the 1962 Lions ruining the Packers' perfect season, Clint Longley, O.J. Simpson setting a record with 273 yards, the botched coin toss with Phil Luckett and Jerome Bettis, Randy Moss dominating the Cowboys, the Butt Fumble and plenty of Barry Sanders highlights. But Lett's blunder was one of the strangest ways we've ever seen a team lose an NFL game. And it just happened to come on Thanksgiving with everyone watching.
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Lett, already known for a Stuper Bowl blooper when Don Beebe ran him down and stripped the ball as he prematurely celebrated a touchdown, was the talk of the NFL after Dallas' 1993 Thanksgiving game. In a snowy setting, the Cowboys blocked a last-minute field goal to seemingly win the game. But Lett, for some reason, came sliding in among a group around the ball, and when he touched it became a live ball and the Dolphins recovered. All the Cowboys had to do was not touch the ball and they had the win. Miami kicked a field goal to win the game on the next play.
Lett eventually let it go. He even starred in a Snickers promotional campaign a few years ago, making light of the incident. But it was embarrassing at the time.
“Honestly, it was the worst play of my life as a football player,” Lett said in 2011, according to ESPNDallas.com. “It was tough. I went into the locker room and I was freezing. Jimmy [Johnson] walked in and consoled me, and I had the support of Jerry Jones. Some of my teammates were really upset and I understood that. We were coming off a Super Bowl championship season and looking for another Super Bowl. I was down on myself, but there was some support from my teammates as well.”
Lett has moved on, and that's good. It's a memory everyone should be able to laugh about 21 years later. But that doesn't mean we'll forget the craziest Thanksgiving NFL moment there has been.
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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdowncorner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab
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