Will You Recall Bonehead Fumble? If Not, It’s Just Fine With McIntyre

With only the eyes of the world watching, rookie Guy McIntyre of the San Francisco 49ers nearly notched a place in the hall of infamy Sunday at Super Bowl XIX.

He almost became a Super Bowl goat, a guy who people in the Bay Area would curse from their cars at stoplights for years to come.

McIntyre was hoping his bonehead play late in the second quarter wouldn’t cost his team the game.

“I was praying,” said McIntyre, a rookie special-teams player. “You know I was.”

As it turned out, McIntyre’s mistake wasn’t an important factor in San Francisco’s 38-16 win over the Miami Dolphins.

But, oh, what might have been. . . .

With 15 seconds left in the half, Miami’s Uwe von Schamann kicked off following a 31-yard field goal that had cut the 49ers’ lead to 28-13.

The ball went bounding down to McIntyre, who caught it and dropped to one knee. But in the NFL, you are not down until you are touched by an opponent. McIntyre, deciding to get up at the last second, fumbled the ball when hit by Miami’s Joe Carter. The Dolphins’ Jim Jensen recovered at the 49er 12-yard line, and Von Schamann kicked a 30-yard field goal as time ran out.

All sorts of nightmarish notions ran through McIntyre’s head.

“You envision a lot of things before the Super Bowl,” he said. “You dream of fumbling the ball and costing the team the game, or getting up when you’re not supposed to. But you also dream of picking the ball up and running for a touchdown.”

McIntyre, a guard out of Georgia, said he was going to stay on the ground, but a teammate yelled at him to get up and run. He wouldn’t reveal the name of the player.

“It happened so fast,” McIntyre said. “The other players just left me alone at halftime. There were no derogatory remarks or anything. Hopefully, I’ll be back with the 49ers next year.”