Devastating Seahawks decision among 25 moments that changed NFL history

Any Seattle Seahawks fan can tell you exactly where they were when it happened. Even though they won the Super Bowl by 35 points against the greatest offense of all time the previous year, Seattle's infamous collapse at the goal line against the New England Patriots instantly went down as the most-devastating single play in NFL history.

For my part, what stands out is the sound that my Georgetown roommate Chloe made when Malcolm Butler emerged with a clean pick on what was arguably the worst play-call in a championship game at the professional level. It was somewhere between a gasp and a shriek.

One has to give kudos to Butler for making the play on the ball - and for original LOB member Brandon Browner for instantly recognizing the call. Still, it's a pair of reads the Patriots should never have been able to make.

Given the Patriots were overloading the line of scrimmage, you can make a case to do something other than trying to run Marshawn Lynch through that brick wall.

Then again, Lynch had made a career of running through brick walls - and the play that Darrell Bevell called made even less sense. Even though Chris Matthews was having a one-hit wonder of a game and Doug Baldwin was their most-clutch option, Bevell dialed up a slant pass to Ricardo Lockette, who may have been he fifth-best option in a receiver room that wouldn't add Tyler Lockett until the following year.

The ghastly play-call resulted in an interception - and the rest was history. Russell Wilson's legacy would never be the same - and the defense's lingering resentment against him for perceived special treatment from Pete Carroll exploded. The resulting damage to the team's chemistry was never repaired - and even though they were the best team in the league once again in 2015 they didn't make it past the divisional round of the playoffs.

That was the end of the peak Legion of Boom era, and to this day we'll swear that they would have three-peated if only they'd managed the goal-to-go situation better than they did.

It was such an epic fail that it changed the course of history for not only the franchise, but the entire league. According to Frank Schwab at Yahoo Sports, the decision not to give Lynch the ball is one of 25 moments over the last 25 years that changed the NFL.

"The Seahawks looked like a growing dynasty at the time, but they'd never reach another Super Bowl. The Patriots played in four of the next five Super Bowls, starting with Super Bowl XLIX, winning three to solidify themselves as arguably the greatest dynasty in sports history. That play changed NFL history."

Michael Jordan's Bulls from the 1990s would have something to say about that second-to-last sentence, but the point stands that the play cemented the Patriots as the greatest NFL team of the era, and the Seahawks as the ultimate what-could-have-been story.

Seattle did get some relief in the all-time blunder department two years later when the Atlanta Falcons suffered an even greater collapse against the Patriots in the Super Bowl. While there was no one single defining moment, blowing a 28-3 lead the way they did is arguably a worse fate. That's about the only competition the Seahawks are likely to have in this particular sad story competition, though.