In late May, when news broke that the NFL was considering axing its annual snoozer of an all-star game for good, the man on the receiving end of the most famous play in Pro Bowl history found himself fielding yet another round of calls and texts about the time that the late Washington safety Sean Taylor decked him into a different dimension. “I always say it’s the 15 seconds of fame that keeps on giving,” Brian Moorman says. “Now it’s gonna finally run out.”
Then again, what football fan could possibly forget? Back deep to punt just shy of midfield in the third quarter of the 2007 Pro Bowl, Moorman, then with the Bills, snared the snap and sprinted toward the right sideline on a scripted fake. Following two blockers, he spied a sliver of daylight and instinctively cut back inside, hoping to reach the first-down line. It proved to be a life-changing mistake, as Taylor arrived with a full helmet of steam, stuck a shoulder into Moorman’s chest and—boom—blasted the 6-foot, 174-pound punter off his cleats.
“It was clean,” Moorman says. “Now, most people say he should’ve never hit me like that in the Pro Bowl. Well, I ran the ball. I only wish I would’ve gotten the first.”
