Joltin' Joe Walker once won a game for the Ducks when it happened. Oregon receiver Byron Marshall nearly blew a touchdown in the National Championship pulling the same dumb move. Only Jayden Limar's heads-up save prevented Noah Whittington from ruining an undefeated season.
Yet nearly every week, somewhere in football it happens.
It's hard to score touchdowns. Athletes work all year long to get an opportunity to cross the goal line and celebrate, to make 80,000 fans scream their name or curse it. However, the most bonehead, clueless, selfish thing a ball carrier can do is to let go of the ball before crossing the goal line.