Winning Catch

Sorry. This isn't a picture of the game-winning catch on Sunday - the one that I saw over and over again on the news - but it's from the same game. I wish I could post that picture so you can visualize what I'm about to explain. (If you are so inclined, you can watch this video and at 1:46 or 107.93 and they'll show a photo.)

For any life-long Minnesota Vikings fan like myself , this was an incredible win. Truth be told, I had given up with five minutes left to go but my mom called as the game ended to tell me that the Vikes pulled out a victory with two seconds left.

Luckily for me, Mexico loves American football, so I was able to watch the game-winning catch on a different channel broadcasting one hour behind for those on the west coast. It was a beautiful.

Okay, Miss Ice Charades, way to rub it in that your team won, but does this have anything to do with skating?

Why yes, thanks for asking. I know this is a stretch, much like the game-winning catch itself, but seeing it over and over on the news it reminded me of landing jumps in skating. Stay with me.

If you watch his feet (both of which had to land in-bounds or the Vikes wouldn't have scored the touchdown) you could see him twist his foot so it would land inside the line even though his body from the ankles up was completely out-of-bounds. It reminded me when skaters go into a jump it can turn out one of three ways.

There is the jump that even from take-off you know you're going to land. You're upright and rotated enough and it will be smooth sailing on the way down. Then there are the jumps that you know from take-off are heading south and there is no way to stop it. You brace yourself for a fall. And then there are those jumps that don't have a clean take-off, but you know in the air that if you tweak something, you can still land the jump.

That's what the catch reminded me of. It wasn't the usual catch, but he tweaked his foot to land in bounds and, well, you know the rest.