Six years and plenty of football later, Tez Johnson still calls it the greatest play ever made. He is biased. But Jan. 27, 2019, did represent the moment Johnson realized that a receiver, under any circumstances, could never turn their back on Bo Nix behind center.
In Nix’s final year of high school at Pinson Valley High in Alabama, a snap flew over his head during one game against nearby rival Clay-Chalkville High. Most members of the offensive and defensive lines, teenagers as they were, stopped running much. Nix didn’t. He scooped the loose fumble, danced for a moment, and flung an NBA-style chest pass to a diving Johnson down the right sideline for a first down.