“You will certainly allow me not to talk you through the scenes that are going on down there. What is offered here is shameful, there is no other way to describe it. ”What the German television reporter Eberhard Stanjek described with these words in 1982 went down in sports history as the“ Gijón Non-Aggression Pact ”. Observers then spoke of a “shame”, a “scandal”.
Because the national soccer teams from Germany and Austria simply kicked the ball to each other for minutes at the World Cup in Spain. For what reason? Because both could (and actually did) reach the next round with the current score at that point in time. The spectators whistled, waved handkerchiefs, wanted or couldn’t believe it. Stanjek spoke from their hearts: “Something like that, to be honest, like what is going on here (…) I have really never experienced anything like this before.”
For a long time it seemed unthinkable that “something like that” should repeat itself again, not only in football. Agreements in professional sport for the sake of the pure result, “shifting” as ORF radio reporter Manfred Payrhuber called it in 1982, are ultimately incompatible with the values of sport. And yet precisely such a scenario seemed plausible before the final day of the American football league NFL last weekend.
One could now ask what an international football match 40 years ago in Europe has to do with American football in Jacksonville, Baltimore and Las Vegas in 2022 – and perhaps rightly so. But: at least so much that American sports media quoted the events from Gijón up and down before the games on Sunday evening to illustrate what the NFL could possibly be. You have to know that the National Football League, more than any other sports league in the world, is primarily a business, a billion-dollar business that sees sport primarily as a source of income, more than any other league. Agreements to achieve a common goal, even if at the expense of competition: for many observers by no means excluded.
All of this now brings the story to Las Vegas, with the local raiders playing against the Los Angeles Chargers. It’s the very last game of the NFL regular season, and it’s all or nothing. The winner will be the last team in the play-offs, the loser will be eliminated. Extra time is running, the time is 32:32, the clock shows two seconds remaining. The Raiders have the ball, can shoot a field goal from a safe distance and thus make the decision. Sure thing, actually. Or not?
Change of location: Baltimore, earlier in the day. The Pittsburgh Steelers play against the local Ravens, and neither side expected to make it to the play-offs after all. If the Indianapolis Colts, who are also guests at the Jacksonville Jaguars, the worst team in the league to date, win, all chances for Pittsburgh and Baltimore would be gone. Everyone believed in it, including Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who had been in the NFL for 18 years and was an institution in the playmaker’s position. Roethlisberger had previously announced that he would end his career after this season. One last appearance in the Pittsburgh jersey, great emotions, made the rounds of farewell words from former companions and compilations of Roethlisberger’s career highlights on social media.
Cheers in Las Vegas: Kicker Daniel Carlson has met
:
Bild: USA TODAY Sports
Change of location: Jacksonville, around the same time. The Jaguars manage the unthinkable and surprisingly defeat the Colts with 26:11.
Back to Baltimore: Overtime is on. Roethlisberger throws a successful pass, a subsequent run brings the Steelers into a safe distance for a field goal. Kicker Chris Boswell scores, Pittsburgh wins.
“We did not hesitate”
Back to Las Vegas: Kicker Daniel Carlson is ready. Because the Colts, Jaguars, Ravens and Steelers played as they just played, the unlikely and yet previously discussed case has actually occurred that a draw would bring both Las Vegas and Los Angeles into the play-offs. Millions are at stake. So why take a risk? Raiders coach Richard Bisaccia could instruct his players to end the game without a field goal and to imitate Germany and Austria.
Then Carlson runs up. Shoots. Meets. Las Vegas is cheering, and suddenly Pittsburgh too. The end of Roethlisberger’s career has surprisingly been postponed. At least one more time, he’ll be on the field for the Steelers. Next weekend in the play-offs against the Kansas City Chiefs. Because the raiders acted in the interest of the sport and the events of 1982 did not repeat themselves. “In the end we had a chance to win the game,” said Las Vegas coach Bisaccia later. “We didn’t hesitate.”
.
