For the second straight week, an America Loves Countdowns® list has been inspired from a quote in a movie. This time the list-provoking film is the classic movie Rudy, about the kid who wants nothing more than to play in one game for Notre Dame. There is a scene where Irish player Jamie O’Hara (played by then-unknown Vince Vaughn) gets tackled by Rudy during a practice scrimmage. He gets all fired up and starts pushing Rudy. The coach comes over and asks what the problem is. O’Hara explains that he is upset because someone dared tackle him during practice, which shows his arrogance and lack of heart. The coach fires back that O’Hara “just summed up his entire sorry career here” with that one play. Well, often life can imitate art. This week we present 10 plays which summed up certain players’ entire NFL careers for better or for worse.

Eric Green: Pulling up Lame in Arizona
You’ll notice a trend on this list as far as the negative plays are concerned. Many NFL players have the talent and skill needed to become winners, but they don’t have the heart. Eric Green was one of those guys. He was a big tight end who gave defenses fits, but he was not a winner. He showed that in his final season with the Steelers. With the Steelers down by three points in the final minutes of a 1994 game at Arizona, Green caught a wide open pass and was off to the races. He should have gone in for the game-winning touchdown, but he pulled up lame inside the 20 and was caught from behind at the 5 yard line. The Steelers had to settle for a game-tying field goal. Had he gone into the endzone, the Steelers would have won. Instead the game went into overtime and they lost. After the season, Miami signed Green to a monster free agent deal, only to be massively disappointed by his lack of production.

Steve McNair: Super Scramble vs. the Rams
McNair will never go down in history in the same category with quarterbacks like Dan Fouts, Dan Marino or Peyton Manning. Those guys could conduct clinics on how to throw a football. McNair didn’t have the same throwing talent, but he could do whatever it took to win a game. In Super Bowl XXXIV between the McNair’s Titans and the more powerful St. Louis Rams, the gutsy quarterback led a desperate last-minute drive in an attempt to tie the game. On the second to last play of the game, McNair scrambled, was about to get sacked, broke out of it, ran backwards, and somehow completed a pass inside the 10 yard line. That play was all Steve McNair. It gave Tennessee time to run one final play, and although it was unsuccessful, McNair’s shear determination on the previous play got him closer to a title than any of those other three guys.

Dewayne Washington: Tipped Pass in Miami
When the Steelers signed Vikings CB Dewayne Washington prior to the 1998 season, I got an email from a Steelers fan living in Minnesota who warned me to be prepared for the biggest headache ever. I didn’t really understand what he was talking about. After all, if Washington were a bad cornerback, then we could just replace him with someone else. But that was the problem – he really wasn’t a terrible cornerback. He rarely got flat out burnt by receivers. Instead he just always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, a constant victim of huge game-changing plays. That was in many ways worse than him being an awful player, because he managed to stay in the starting lineup for the next six seasons. In his third game as a Steeler, Washington had his hands on a Dan Marino endzone pass in Miami. It was going to be a sure interception, but the ball inauspiciously slipped through his hands and landed right in the arms of Dolphin receiver Lamar Thomas for a touchdown. It was a sign of so many infamous moments to come.

Steve Young: Running with No Helmet in a Pre-Season Game
QB Steve Young always wanted to win no matter what the circumstance, and sometimes he played very recklessly in an effort to do so. In a 1995 pre-season game against San Diego, Young had his helmet ripped off while fighting off a sack. Many quarterbacks would have immediately tried to get rid of the ball at that point or they would have just went down to avoid massive head injury, especially since it was just a pre-season game. Steve Young scrambled and ran straight into the defense! Some people would call that play gritty. Others would call it just plain stupid. I’d call it vintage Steve Young.

Plaxico Burress: Dropped Pass in AFC Championship Game
Plex was drafted high in the first round by the Steelers in 2000. He was a tall and athletic receiver who could reach over a defender’s head to grab a jump ball. He could have easily been the next Randy Moss (in terms of football talent anyway). Instead Plex always seemed to come up short when the team needed him the most. No play typified this more than his drop in the 2004 AFC Championship Game. The Steelers attempted a fade pass into the corner of the endzone. Two New England defensive backs were covering Burress, but he had at least three or four inches on both of them. He got into perfect position to make the catch, but the ball fell right through his hands, forcing the Steelers to attempt a field goal instead. It would be his final game in Pittsburgh – a sad end to unrealized potential.

Jerome Bettis: Plowing Over Brian Urlacher
The Bus pounded through defenses for 13 NFL seasons. He just got the ball and ran straight ahead, keeping his legs churning for as long as he could before someone (usually with help) would finally bring him to the ground. The thing that made him great is how he never quit on a run. By his final NFL season, Bettis was old and broken down. He was no longer a feature back. Chicago’s Brian Urlacher on the other hand was in the prime of his career, and would be named the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year. Nevertheless, Bettis steamrolled Urlacher – after he had already broken through one other tackle – on a short run into the endzone that year. That was Jerome Bettis. It didn’t matter if he was going up against the best player in the league or if he was hurt or if he no longer had the talent. He was still going to run at the guy head-on and dare him to make the tackle, never giving up until he had won the battle.

Thurman Thomas: Fumble in Super Bowl XXVIII
The Buffalo Bills of the early 1990′s had some all-time great players. They were guys who could light up a defense, and they used to dominate teams throughout the regular season and playoffs. However, when they got to the biggest stage of all, they always proved to be losers. No one player on the Bills symbolized this more than RB Thurman Thomas. He was such a talented runner, but in the Super Bowl, some kind of losing sickness seemed to come over him. In 1993, the Bills made it to their 4th consecutive Super Bowl and held a 7-point lead over Dallas early in the 3rd quarter when Thomas fumbled the football, only to have it scooped up and returned for a touchdown by Cowboys DB James Washington. Thomas never recovered while his counterpart Emmit Smith went on to dominate Buffalo and earned the game’s MVP award.

Barry Sanders: Beautiful Run Against New England
There has never been a better pure runner than Barry Sanders. I used to watch Lions games in the 1990′s just to get a glimpse of Sanders. The guy could just confound a defense like no one else. His runs were things of beauty that should be showcased in an art museum somewhere. The play that defined his career the most came against New England in 1994. It was typical Barry Sanders weaving, twisting, and turning his way thru a defense, so much so that he spun a New England defender around about three different ways and the guy still couldn’t make the tackle. You can actually see a clip of this play on YouTube.

Michael Vick: Sack in Chicago
Not since Bo Jackson has there ever been an NFL player as hyped as Atlanta’s Michael Vick. In his first few years in the NFL, he won over many fans with his brilliant athleticism. He was just flat out fun to watch. But he wasn’t a top-tier NFL quarterback. The top passers in the league all have a certain quality that can’t be identified via the stat sheet or highlight film. They possess a certain leadership quality, an ability to stay cool under pressure, and above all, a toughness to be able to withstand a pounding in the pocket but still come out firing. Whatever the opposite of those traits are, Vick displayed them all in a cold December 2005 game at Chicago. The Bears defense pressured Vick all night, and after getting sacked on one particular play, the flustered QB walked over to the sideline and had the equipment guy put a coat on him. He then sat on the sideline wrapped up in his huge coat with the look of total defeat on his face. It may not seem like a big deal, but think about championship quarterbacks for a minute – would you have ever seen Montana, Elway, Brady, or Roethlisberger do that? Those guys all would have wanted to get back on the field and fight on. Vick is a coddled little baby (which is typical of most Virginia Tech alums), and this play convinced me that he will never be a champion.

Hines Ward: Catch in AFC Championship Game
Pittsburgh likes a talented athlete, but as players like Jack Lambert and Ulf Samuelson have proven, an athelete with a blue collar work attitude will capture a truly special place in the hearts of yinzers. Few athletes have been as adored in this town as WR Hines Ward. He combines flashy talent with that gritty style of play like no other Steelers player before him, and he always does it with that trademark smile on his face. The play that summed up Ward’s career took place in the 2005 AFC Championship Game at Denver. Early in the game, QB Ben Roethlisberger floated a pass out to Ward. CB Champ Bailey, arguably the best defensive back of this era, stepped in front of the ball for what should have been an easy interception and touchdown return. Ward fought Bailey for the ball, tipped it up in the air, and caught it. Then he took a ferocious hit from John Lynch, arguable the toughest hitter of this era, and still held onto the ball. Had Bailey picked that ball off, Denver would have taken an early lead, and their whole offense was built around protecting leads. That play helped save a Super Bowl season. It showed the football world what Hines Ward is all about, and why he is invaluable to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Honorable Mentions:

• Rod Woodson: Fumble Recovery in Houston – There are only a handful of atheletes in my lifetime who could single-handedly win games (Mario Lemieux and Michael Jordan are the most notable). Football is much more of a team sport than hockey or basketball, so you can’t really make that distinction too much about football players, especially guys who play on the defensive side of the ball. However, Rod Woodson came as close as you could get to being that type of player. In overtime of a 1989 playoff game at Houston, Woodson caused a fumble and then recovered it, setting up the game-winning field goal. It was typical of how he could take a game and win it all by himself.
• Scott Mitchell: Overtime Pass Against Cincinnati – If you ever want to get beat up in Detroit, ask a football fan what they think about Scott Mitchell. The former Lions QB put up some big numbers, but he always seemed to stick a dagger straight into the hearts of the fans. In a 1998 home game against then-lowly Cincinnati (a team that would finish 3-13), Mitchell threw a costly interception in overtime that should have cost his team the game. The Bengals messed it up though, and Detroit got another chance. This time Mitchell threw a second interception that was returned for a touchdown. I’ve never heard a stadium be that angry towards one player before. Mitchell was demoted from starter to third-string after that play, and he would never throw another pass for Detroit again.
• Kevin Carter: Loafing in the Super Bowl – Carter was definitely a talented defensive lineman. In 1999, he recorded 17 sacks and made the Pro Bowl. But like some of the other people on this list, his lack of passion for the game made certain that he would never become a legend. As the Titans were driving in the final seconds of the Super Bowl that year against Carter’s Rams, he basically quit playing. On one play in particular, he made no effort whatsoever to get to the quarterback. NFL Films caught him coming over to the sideline after the play to ask coach Dick Vermeil to take him out of the game. A baffled Vermeil simply said something to the effect of, “This is the final minute of the Super Bowl and you want to come out?!?”
• Mike Tomczak: Scuffle with Oilers – There is no position in football quite like that of the journeyman quarterback. This is a guy who has never been and will never be a star. He will always be a backup, only getting to start in small stretches throughout his career. The journeyman quarterback won’t be the most talented guy, he’ll probably throw more interceptions than touchdowns, and he’ll bounce around to no less than four or five different teams before it’s all said and done. Yet somehow, he will manage to stay in the league for more than a decade. You know these guys – there are a handful of them in the league at any given time. So what kind of criteria does it take to make it as a journeyman quarterback? For former Steelers QB Mike Tomczack, it was a gritty “don’t take any crap from anyone” attitude. No play exemplified this more than the one in Three Rivers Stadium against Houston in 1996. An Oilers defender picked up the football after the whistle had blown and kind of ran into Tomczack with his shoulder. Tomczack’s response: he threw him down to the ground! His attitude was “if you’re gonna run the ball at me as if it were a fumble, then I’m going to tackle you as if it were a fumble.” That was the kind of attitude that allows someone with minimal football talent to play as long as he did.