How referee in Hall of Fame Game played role in getting Larry Fitzgerald to Cardinals

Wrolstad was a rookie field judge that season, and determined that Poole was pushed out of bounds while he was in mid-air making the catch. At that time the "force out" rule was still in effect, and gave referees the freedom to award a catch if they felt a wide receiver's feet would have come down in bounds had they not been pushed by a defender.

At the time, it was a perfectly valid call, and most definitely the right call by the rules. In today's NFL the play never would have been a catch, the Vikings would have won, made the playoffs, and the Cardinals would have stayed in the No. 1 overall spot.

It is there that the what-if scenarios become crazy to think about it.

If Arizona had remained in the top spot, it would have almost certainly tried to select quarterback Eli Manning. But that would have created another question of whether or not Manning would have wanted to play there, or if he would have forced a trade the same way he did when the San Diego Chargers selected him.

Manning ended up getting traded to the New York Giants for Phillip Rivers (who the Giants selected at No. 4 overall) and a future first-round pick that turned out to be outside linebacker Shawne Merriman. 

That set the stage for offensive lineman Robert Gallery to get picked by the Oakland Raiders at No. 2 overall, and then Fitzgerald with the Cardinals at No. 3.

Would Manning have played in Arizona? 

Would the Cardinals have been able to get a similar trade package out of the Giants if not?

Would Arizona have insisted on quarterback Ben Roethlisberger instead of Rivers?

Or would Arizona have still been happy to come away with Fitzgerald in a different manner?

It is a massive chaotic, butterfly effect that all goes back to one call in a Week 17 game. The entire NFL may have changed for two decades based on it.