Fail Mary
The Fail Mary, also known as the Inaccurate Reception or the Intertouchdownception, was the final play of an American football game between the Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League (NFL) that occurred on September 24, 2012, at CenturyLink Field in Seattle, Washington. In a nationally televised game on ESPN's Monday Night Football, the Seahawks defeated the Packers, 14–12, in controversial fashion.
A screenshot of the ESPN broadcast taken during the play that resulted in the officiating controversy. | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Date | September 24, 2012 | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Stadium | CenturyLink Field, Seattle, Washington | ||||||||||||||||||
| Favorite | Packers by 3 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Referee | Wayne Elliott | ||||||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 68,218 | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Packers: Charles Woodson Seahawks: none | |||||||||||||||||||
| TV in the United States | |||||||||||||||||||
| Network | ESPN | ||||||||||||||||||
| Announcers | Mike Tirico, Jon Gruden, and Lisa Salters | ||||||||||||||||||
On the final play of the tightly contested game, Seattle rookie quarterback Russell Wilson threw a Hail Mary pass into the end zone intended for wide receiver Golden Tate. Both Tate and Packers defender M. D. Jennings got their hands on the ball while both players were still in the air and attempting to gain possession. The two officials near the play initially gave separate signals of touchdown and touchback, before ruling the players had simultaneous possession, resulting in a Seahawks game-winning touchdown. Prior to the catch, Tate shoved Packers cornerback Sam Shields with both hands, which the NFL later acknowledged should have drawn an offensive pass interference penalty that would have negated the touchdown and resulted in a Packers victory. The lack of a pass interference penalty and the ruling of a touchdown via simultaneous catch were widely questioned in the aftermath of the game, drawing comments from the game's announcers, NFL players, and the media. The NFL subsequently released a statement defending the touchdown ruling, while admitting that offensive pass interference did occur, which would have resulted in a Packers win.
The controversial ending followed weeks of criticism regarding the quality of officiating by replacement officials employed by the NFL during the 2012 NFL referee lockout. Two days after the game, the NFL and the NFL Referees Association announced that they had reached an agreement to end the lockout. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell acknowledged that the negative attention the game drew to the referee situation was an impetus for ending the labor dispute.