"The Catch II" Steve Young to Terrell Owens
"The Catch II" Steve Young to Terrell Owens
January 3, 1999

"The Catch II" Steve Young to Terrell Owens

"Might be one of my favorite moments from childhood." - Dan Soder

Almost two decades after “The Catch,” the pass play between Joe Montana and Dwight Clark that lifted the 49ers to a NFC Championship win at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park, that same venue would host a sequel: The Catch II. For this one, on January 3, 1999, the characters were fresh and the stakes weren’t quite as grand – it was a wild-card game – but the play was dramatic. Following a fourth quarter Packers touchdown, the 49ers had the ball with eight seconds left at the Packers’ 25-yard line, on a third down and 3. Young snapped the ball and stumbled as he dropped back, but righted himself, then threw a pass down the middle of the field to receiver Terrell Owens, who was surrounded by Packers. The perfectly-thrown ball led Owens blindly toward two defenders waiting at the goal line, ready to put on a lick; Owens courageously leapt up just shy of the end zone, caught the ball on the end line and got instantly sandwiched by the two Green Bay players. Owens, despite being shaken and slow to get up, had somehow held onto the ball – and the 49ers won, 30-27.