Detroit Lions: Remember the time Titus Young caught a Hail Mary?

Disappeared from view

Of the key contributors from this game for the Lions, many of them had moved on from the team (and from the NFL) very shortly after.

Shaun Hill–that botched 4th and one play was the final regular season snap Hill ever took as a member of the Lions.

Titus Young–derailed by mental health issues midway through the 2012 season. Was deactivated from the roster by December and was out of the league for good by the end of the season.

Mikel Leshoure–rushed for 100 yards in his first game as a Lion, his first and only 100 yard game. Was out of the league for good one year later.

Jason Hanson–was the game’s leading scorer with four made field goals and three extra points; Hanson quietly retired at the end of 2012, his 21st season as a pro.

Trivia Question

Who is the only player in the history of competitive football to catch two famous last second Hail Mary passes, and somehow lose both games*? None other than Titus Young, Sr.

Two years before his catch against the Titans, Young caught a bomb inside the ten yard line, with one second left against a Colin Kaepernick-led Nevada team. With the score tied 31-31, Titus’s  Superman-like diving catch set up a chip shot field goal, seemingly to preserve an undefeated season for Boise State.

Unfortunately for Titus and the Broncos, college football’s most famous missed field goal of the decade happened on the following play (and the second most famous one a few plays after that), and Nevada pulled off the upset in overtime.

*I have no way of fact-checking this, but if anybody can find another instance of this happening in D1 college ball or the NFL, let me know in the comment section below.