It is a rare occurrence for one team to block two field goals in the same game. For the Eagles, the late-game heroics from Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis to seal an improbable come-from-behind victory Sunday over the Los Angeles Rams was — according to the Elias Sports Bureau — on the anniversary of the last time the Eagles blocked two field goals in the same game.
Bill Bergey, the late former Eagles linebacker, was a one-man wrecking crew on Sept. 21, 1975, 50 years ago Sunday. He didn’t just block two of New York Giants kicker George Hunt’s field-goal attempts that day, he also got in the way of one of Hunt’s extra-point attempts.
The Eagles lost the game, 23-14, but Bergey saved seven points. He blocked Hunt’s first extra-point attempt and then stymied field-goal attempts from 37 and 39 yards.
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“The extra point was probably a little low,” Hunt said, according to a New York Times article on Nov. 12, 1975, “but on the other two everything was just right. He just jumped up, stuck his hand up and he hits the ball. What are the chances he does that three times in a row? I was talking to another placekicker recently and he said, ‘Boy, he’s got to be the luckiest guy in the world to get his hand in the right place three times.’”
Luck? Not quite. The Giants noticed Bergey getting an advantage, and they wanted to make sure what he did never happened again, which led to a clarification of Rule 12, Section 2, Article 15 (i).
Bergey, according to the Times, got a running start toward the line of scrimmage, put a hand on a teammate’s shoulder, and helped push himself into the air.
The move was legal, according to the NFL’s supervisor of officials at the time, Art McNally. “There was nothing in the rules to stipulate that it was illegal,” McNally said. “But before the next weekend the clubs were notified that it was illegal from then on.”
It was already illegal for a player to jump or stand on a teammate, or to be lifted by a teammate in an effort to block a kick. But officials reviewed what Bergey did and “decided further clarification was in order,” according to the Times.
The clarification of the rule relayed to teams read: “Placing a hand or hands on either a teammate or opponent to get leverage for additional height in the attempt to block a kick.”
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Bergey’s efforts came in the season opener. The teams met again in mid-November, which prompted the Times to run a story with the headline: “Bergey: Mental Block for Hunt,” and a passage that said Hunt could at least “sleep well the next few nights knowing Bergey can’t use the same method to block his kicks this Sunday that he did in September.”
Sleep well Hunt must have. The Eagles won, 13-10, but the Giants’ kicker made his lone field-goal try from 34 yards and connected on an extra point that tied the score at 10 apiece in the fourth quarter.