The Miami Miracle between the Miami Dolphins and the New England Patriots still remains one of the craziest finishes in NFL history.

It was a play that pretty much summed up the ‘any given Sunday’ mentality that exists within the NFL and one of the few moments in recent years that you can mention the Miami Dolphins in a positive light.

Having put up just 2 winning seasons since the 2010 season, times haven’t exactly been superb on South Beach, not helped by the New England Patriots maintaining their dominance over the league. 

However, any moment that they can get to show up the big brother in the division is something that they will gladly take, and when it comes in such a spectacular fashion as this, that just makes it all the better. 

What happened on the play? 

The game was onto its final play, with the Dolphins trailing 33-28 with just 7 seconds left on the clock and on their own 31-yard line.

The Patriots believed that the Dolphins were set to line up for a Hail Mary kind of play, one long heave towards the endzone in the hopes of winning a jump ball.

As a result, head coach Bill Belichick put tight end Rob Gronkowski, who stands at a listed 6’6 and more than 250lbs, back deep in order to knock down any ball that came his way. 

The Dolphins though had something different up their sleeve, and instead went for a series of laterals between the team before eventually getting the ball to Kenyan Drake who sprinted the rest of the way, past the desperate arms of Gronkowski, into the endzone and into NFL lore: 

What happened after?

Other than the fact that Gronkowski was likely destined never to be put on the field for a Hail Mary again, the Patriots emerged from the game pretty much undeterred, whilst they would lose to the Pittsburgh Steelers the following week, they would end the season as Super Bowl champions after their 13-3 victory over the Los Angeles Rams.

The Dolphins meanwhile could and probably should have used this game as a springboard for the rest of the season as the result took them to 7-6 on the year. However, they failed to capitalise on it and ended the season 7-9, 2nd in the division and out of the playoffs. 

But just for that one afternoon in Miami, Dolphins fans were treated to one of the greatest plays in NFL history, and hopefully that was enough for them to stomach everything else that has happened in the years before and after.