He didn’t get famous. He didn’t get rich. He didn’t even get an easy ride home; he had to walk several miles through darkened Pasadena streets to find a friend’s car.
His jersey from that day is hanging in a closet wrapped in dry-cleaner plastic. His gloves and sweatband are stuffed in the back of a drawer. He doesn’t have the football because, after tipping and intercepting and waving it, he dropped it.
Ten years after making one of the biggest impact plays in the history of the USC-UCLA football rivalry, former Bruins linebacker Eric McNeal knows that most people have forgotten.