To tweet: https://es.pn/1zCs12S
“Good Gosh O’Mighty”: The Comeback
SportsCenter (Friday, 6 p.m. ET, ESPN)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ci-oWCvyNVk&feature=youtu.be
Twenty years ago, two nondescript high school teams in Texas became famous. In what is now considered the greatest comeback (or near comeback) in football history, Plano East High School overcame a 41-17 deficit with 3:03 remaining — only to lose to John Tyler High School on a 97-yard kickoff return with 24 seconds left in the game. Two decades later, the participants, the coaches and the announcers give SC Featured an unfiltered account of what really happened in that 1994 state playoff game at Texas Stadium which featured three recovered onside kicks and 34 points – all in the final three minutes. Tom Friend reports.
“The whole game haunts me to this day. I can’t get it out of my mind. I replay every play. On that final kickoff, he starts running out left, like he’s going to come right at me. And that’s where I slip. I second guess every decision I made on that football field. — Laurence Mallory, former Plano East defensive end.
“It took me probably four or five years until I actually watched the game again. I can remember sitting on the couch and just crying.’’ — Jonathan Braddick, former Plano East tight end
“It was just one of the greatest moments of my life, you know? The moral of the story is to never give up. Never quit. Never die.’’ — Roderick Dunn, former John Tyler kick returner
Coach’s Perspective: Butch Davis on the UNC Academic Scandal
Outside the Lines (Friday, 5:30 p.m. ESPN2; Sunday, 8 a.m. ESPN2; 9 a.m. ESPNEWS)
In 2011, the University of North Carolina fired head football coach Butch Davis amid an NCAA investigation of football players receiving improper benefits and allegedly taking part in academic fraud. None of the allegations cited Davis, who was released just weeks after UNC’s academic scandal started to make headlines. Now, three years after his departure, Davis, now an ESPN analyst, tells Steve Delsohn what he knew about some of the classes his players were taking and why he feels there was a rush to judgment leading to his dismissal.
“I think that, initially, the university would’ve loved to have been able to wrap it up as fast and as quick as possible — contain it and make it a football issue and maybe make it a Butch Davis issue. And, if we can get it done and get it over and put it in the past, we can start moving forward.” – Butch Davis, former UNC head football coach
The Far Sideline
ESPN.com (to be posted Friday)
ESPN The Magazine (“Championship Drive” issue on newsstands December 26)
Football savant Scot McCloughan has built two Super Bowl-winning teams. But exiled by his demons, will he get a shot to build a third? Seth Wickersham reports.
How Softball Could Make its Return at the 2020 Olympics
espnW
While the IOC’s recent reforms have opened the door for softball and baseball to potentially rejoin the Olympic program in the 2020 Tokyo Games, USA Softball is cautiously optimistic. Graham Hays reports.
“Team USA coach Ken Eriksen is an example of what kept the national program going. Now in his fourth year as its head coach, he has yet to draw a paycheck for his work.” — Graham Hays
Hannah Storm contributes to tomorrow’s 20/20 report on the skills, tricks, and mind games some of the best salesmen in the business use to separate buyers from their money. Storm’s piece on 20/20 (Friday, 10 p.m. ET/PT, ABC) features Shark Tank’s Robert Herjavec revealing some classic techniques the best salesmen deploy to seal the deal, from the “Standing Room Only” to the “Artisan.” Storm reports as three job-hungry trainees undergo tutelage from Herjavec and try to sell some of his partner-company’s tacky holiday sweaters while he coaches them through an earpiece.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY_vEtfHw24&feature=youtu.be