Maybe the worst thanksgiving ever for someone who wasn’t a turkey.

November 23, 2017 11:02 AM

"It all went wrong when Sanchez turned the wrong way," Ryan says. "That was the first indication that it was going to be a bad play. But we had no idea it was going to be a disaster."

- ESPN presents an oral history on the fifth anniversary of the Butt Fumble.
posted by jenkinsEar (19 comments total)

Sanchez (in 2014):...It was a bummer.

I see what he did there.
posted by nubs at 11:16 AM on November 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

Steve Gregory (the Pat who scored the touchdown after the fumble) is killing it:
Every Thanksgiving, we re-enact the Butt Fumble. Usually my wife plays Mark Sanchez. I play me. We line my father up as an offensive lineman, and we take my mother and put her on the defensive line. She knocks my dad back, my wife runs into him, she fumbles, I pick it up and score. Then we go eat turkey ... Come on, I'm joking. We don't do that.

Of course, easier to laugh about it from his vantage point.
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 11:21 AM on November 23, 2017 [10 favorites]

Hmm, interesting. The Thanksgiving play I'll never forget is this one. Thank you very much Leon Lett.
posted by Fizz at 11:24 AM on November 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

I'd argue that Lett's fumble was worse, but I'm a Cowboys fan and I'm still angry.
posted by Fizz at 11:26 AM on November 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

I kind of came into this thread thinking this was going to be a story about the worst play in the history of theatre. Not American Football.
posted by HypotheticalWoman at 11:34 AM on November 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

that was hilarious
posted by numaner at 11:40 AM on November 23, 2017

Well, the Jets’ best quarterback ever was probably Broadway Joe. They’ve always been a fairly theatrical team.
posted by jenkinsEar at 11:40 AM on November 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

I kind of came into this thread thinking this was going to be a story about the worst play in the history of theatre

Well, it's no Moose Murders but perhaps somebody could stage an off-off-broadway production of Butt Fumble.
posted by nubs at 11:41 AM on November 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

May I recommend this unexpectedly moving article from Deadspin on the subject?
posted by ominous_paws at 12:22 PM on November 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

Huh, five years? I usually don't watch football on Thanksgiving but watched it that year for some reason. It's still one of favorite moments in football.
posted by octothorpe at 12:44 PM on November 23, 2017

I know nothing about any sports, football included, have never watched more than a few minutes of a football game, etc etc. But even I have seen and appreciated the exquisite slapstick delight that is the Butt Fumble. Possibly I am tickled by it because my sense of humor is very much stuck in the vaudeville age of hilarious physical pratfalls but it has a je ne sais quoi that merits watching and re-watching.
posted by Aubergine at 12:47 PM on November 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

Much like today's Thanksgiving, this video was not available in my country.
posted by chococat at 12:50 PM on November 23, 2017 [10 favorites]

hahah I thought it is normal
posted by ColeHernandez at 3:00 PM on November 23, 2017

I actually have a gif of this saved on my work computer. Watching the Butt Fumble on a loop for 30 seconds is a supremely perfect mini-break. It's hypnotizing and hilarious.
posted by Ruki at 5:11 PM on November 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

"The best best worst play in football"? No. There actually is nothing special about this play. At least to someone who's played the game for many years and still enjoys watching games most Sunday afternoons. But I guess if you put the words "butt" and "fumble" together it sticks in people's heads. And it's now rolled out each year as some sort of Thanksgiving tradition.
posted by parm=serial at 7:23 PM on November 23, 2017

There actually is nothing special about this play.

Someone always has to be the party pooper.
posted by Anonymous at 9:21 PM on November 23, 2017

At you service! ;-)
posted by parm=serial at 7:07 AM on November 24, 2017

Thank your! ;-)
posted by chococat at 11:14 AM on November 24, 2017

My favorite thing about the Butt Fumble is that it basically wrecked the "Not Top Play of the Week" on SportsCenter too. Every week on the late morning Friday SC they'd have the worst blooper of the week in a contest with the reigning champion where people could go online and vote for which was worse. I'm not really a SC guy, but I really liked "Not Top Plays" so I'd tune in just for that. After a year of the Butt Fumble winning they basically had to retire the segment.
posted by ob1quixote at 11:18 AM on November 24, 2017