New York EXPLAINED
Get the brief

On this day in New York · January 27, 1991

Wide Right

The Giants beat the Bills by a single point in Tampa when Scott Norwood's last-second field goal drifted just outside the upright, and New York got its second Lombardi Trophy on a kick that missed.

Wide Right
Wikimedia Commons / Scott Norwood

The facts

Date
January 27, 1991
Final score
New York Giants 20, Buffalo Bills 19
Venue
Tampa Stadium, Tampa, Florida, attendance 73,813
The kick
Scott Norwood's 47-yard attempt with 8 seconds left went wide right

Ten days into the Gulf War, with security tight and a Whitney Houston national anthem that landed harder than usual, the Giants and the Bills played the closest Super Bowl anyone had seen. Jeff Hostetler started at quarterback in place of the injured Phil Simms and ran a Giants offense built to keep Buffalo's fast no-huddle attack off the field entirely, holding the ball for a Super Bowl record 40 minutes and 33 seconds. Ottis Anderson, 33 years old and largely written off two seasons earlier, carried 21 times for 102 yards and a touchdown to win MVP. Buffalo still had the ball down 20 to 19 with time for one more play: with 8 seconds left, Scott Norwood lined up a 47-yard field goal to win the game, and it sailed wide right, missing by less than a yard.

In their words

The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.

  1. I'm dedicating this win for our troops

    MVP Ottis Anderson, in place of the traditional "I'm going to Disney World" line

    Source: Wikipedia

Why it still matters

It's still the only Super Bowl decided by a single point, and it turned on a plan Bill Parcells and his defensive coordinator Bill Belichick built specifically to slow Buffalo down, the same grind-it-out, control-the-clock football the Giants leaned on again to win it all a decade later.

Sources

Get the day it happened, the day it happens.

Every morning brief ends with this day in New York history, and every day adds a page to this almanac. Free, in your inbox.

Free to start. The unsubscribe link actually works.