Catching Missed Field Goal Was A Reminder Of A Lost Friend
FOXBORO (CBS) - The crowd at Gillette Stadium went absolutely crazy when Baltimore kicker Billy Cundiff missed a potential game-tying 32-yard field goal with 11 seconds remaining to clinch a trip to the Super Bowl for the Patriots on Sunday.
Terry Oder of West Hartford, Connecticut was standing in the 9th row behind the end zone, and watched as the kick sailed wide left.
"It's going right to my friend Rob," Oder recounted on Tuesday.
Rob was standing right next to him, but as fate would have it, Rob's hands were full.
"Rob had a beer in one hand and a snowmobile glove in the other and it hits him, he bobbles it and the ball comes right to me," Oder told WBZ NewsRadio 1030.
"I grab it with both hands, duck down and before I knew it, there were like 20 guys on my back," said Oder. "It was insane. I was buried under this pile for about four minutes before I could come up for air."
Oder held on tight and eventually emerged from the pile with a souvenir that will live in infamy.
"All anyone wanted to do was get their picture taken with me and the ball," he said.
For now, the ball is going into a safe deposit box. Eventually, it will end up on his mantle.
Oder says the souvenir has special meaning to him, and he plans to hold onto it for a long time.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Matt Ledin talks to the man who caught the ball.
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He says he and his buddies were at the game in honor of their friend, a Gloucester police officer who passed away unexpectedly a couple of weeks ago.
"I can't help but think…he had something to do with sending that ball our way. Maybe Myra Kraft was involved as well, but it doesn't make any sense with 68,000 people in the stadium, the ball's coming to us," Oder said.
"I think my friend's smiling up there, looking down on us."
