Kyler Murray – ASTRAL GEEKS FFL

Art by Pixel NFL (@pixelnfl on Twitter and Instagram)

Solak’s emotional whiplash reflects in real time what the rest of us were going through in the course of that heart-stopping, high speed, off the rails train-car-full-of-exploding-zombies death ride that was Bills/Vikings. Stefon Diggs, currently the highest scoring WR in Astral Geeks (and the more impressive half of the Minneapolis Miracle, the former Greatest Catch in Recent Vikings History), had a robust 12 receptions for 128 yards against his former team – one of which was an utterly spectacular leaping, one-handed grab, where he snatched a high-flying Josh Allen bullet right out of the air on a 3rd and 15 that, unfortunately, nobody will even remember in a month or two. Because not only was it overshadowed 13 minutes later by an even more spectacular, more impossible, more do-or-die 4th and 18 catch by Jefferson, but an absolutely bonkers series of events that took place in the final two minutes of regulation time, in which each teams’ Winning % rocketed up and down as erratically as John Belushi’s blood pressure.

This all-timer had everything: A 17-point comeback. Josh Allen running wild, impossible to tackle in the open field, racking up 84 yards rushing. Dalvin Cook breaking off an 81-yard TD. Two elite WRs facing off, fighting for dominance (and yeah, JJ won). Two Patrick Peterson INTs, one to seal the victory for the Purple People Eaterz on the final play. Back to back failed QB sneaks – the first a foiled go-ahead TD for the Vikings and the second a Josh Allen fumble ending in a go-ahead TD for the Vikings. Elite displays of athleticism alternating with head-smacking ineptitude, all of it combining for 60 minutes of pure, platinum-grade entertainment. This was top shelf football, and at its best the NFL is unmatched in its ability to consistently deliver extemporaneous drama and surprise. I am routinely fed up with the poisonous fuckknuckles who run this league, but I must admit that I’ve never seriously considered giving it up. When it’s good, it’s just too damn good.

Now, let’s talk about that Jefferson catch. Field Yates immediately called it the Catch of the Century on Twitter, and a consensus seemed to form quickly around the idea that this had surpassed Odell’s legendary one-hander as the Mother of All Catches. Maybe you agree with this or maybe you don’t, but the reasoning put forward was that beyond the difficulty (using one hand to snatch the ball away from a defender who already had two hands on it and then to secure it, all while falling upside down and backwards through the air) was that the context was far more important. The pressure was cranked up by the dire circumstances of a 4th and 18 play with the game on the line, in a contest between two top-tier contenders fighting for supremacy in their respective conferences. It was also pointed out that while Odell’s catch was a TD, it came early in the second quarter of a relatively meaningless game that the Giants eventually lost, in a season where they went 6-10, rendering it less impressive overall.

These arguments are all fine and good, but as far as I’m concerned, Odell’s iconic catch reigns supreme on sheer athletic prowess alone (and superhero visuals). These days, our collective memory is cut so short by the immediacy of social media meme-ry (not sorry) and recency bias is so powerful that it seems to completely wipe away even recent history. I mean, it was less than two months ago that George Pickens made a backward one-handed catch so astonishing that it had people asking aloud if it had surpassed Odell’s (answer: not quite, but still worthy of even a Top 5 2022 highlight reel) and everybody already seems to have forgotten about it. But even if we do subscribe to the (very reasonable) argument that the import of the circumstances surrounding a catch elevates it to a higher level, then there are still a few others from this century that have to rank above it, no? What about Hopkins’ last second game-winner two years ago where he beat out three defenders in the end zone, snatching it from the air with his fingertips? That was in a game between contenders, and the catch helped beat (who else?) the 7-2 Bills and newly minted murder cyborg Josh Allen 2.0. (The Bills went on to lose to {the motherfucking relentless} Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game, while the then 6-3 Cards did that Kingsbury thing of going 2-5 the rest of the way and missing the playoffs altogether. More on that later.)

But if we are truly combining impossible athleticism and historic circumstances, the Catch of the Century has to be the Helmet Catch, no? I mean, its credentials are impeccable. It came in the final two minutes of probably the greatest Super Bowl ever (even if you don’t have it Number 1, it has to be Top Five at the very least), extending the eventual game-winning drive on a play where Eli Manning also did some heart-stoppingly impossible shit by pulling out of a defender’s grasp and avoiding getting sacked by at least three different Patriots before planting his feet and hucking it 30 yards downfield. And while the catch itself wasn’t exactly balletic one-handed flying god type shit, Tyree still had to leap up to catch it behind his head and then secure it against – well, his helmet – as he fell backwards onto a Patriot defender. And the visuals are as iconic as Odell’s catch, if not more so.

Okay, so maybe you think the Helmet Catch is overrated (clearly, you are a spoiled rotten Patriots fan, but whatever). Then what about any other number of impossibly clutch Super Bowl catches? You could go one year after the Pats/Giants and pick Santonio Holmes’ gravity-defying, triple-covered toe-tapper in the corner of the end zone with 39 seconds left to seal the comeback victory for the Steelers against Kurt Warner’s surprisingly feisty Cardinals. Or what about Edelman snatching a deflected ball away from three Falcon defenders as the Patriots marched down the field on the game-tying drive after being down *ahem* 28-3 less than fifteen minutes earlier in the greatest (and most annoying) comeback of all time? Or does anyone remember Kearse’s bobbling catch against the Pats in 2014 that was so improbable that it made Tom Brady shake his head in utter disbelief as he watched the replay live? Sure, it came in a game that the Seahawks lost on the very next play (one of the most controversial WTF play calls of all-time), but in such a tightly contested match, that catch put the Seahawks within spitting distance of the end zone and their second consecutive title. (The hallmark of every single one of these catches is Collinsworth ecstatically moaning and exclaiming that he’s never seen anything like it before.)

Now, my point is not to diminish everybody’s fun in regards to Jefferson’s baller play by bringing up all these other possibly more impressive plays. People want to feel like what is happening now is the most amazing thing that has ever happened, that they are witnessing history in the making, and who am I to say they are not? If the Vikings end up winning the Super Bowl in February, well obviously this catch will be immortalized forever as a crucial part of the greatest season in the franchise’s history. But why not, just for fun and context, place it next to some of the other greatest catches of the 21st Century?

I have included down below the videos of all the catches I have mentioned so far (sorry they won’t embed, the NFL flags everything). It’s 1000% likely that I have overlooked some crucial ones, so please let me know what I missed in the comments. After you watch them all, cast your vote for which one is truly the Catch of the Century!

The Jefferson Catch