The spirit of Leon Lett lived on this week in one Dallas Cowboys defender.
Cowboys safety Malik Hooker was at the center of an embarrassing sequence late in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s Week 18 loss to the Washington Commanders. Dallas was leading 19-16 with 33 seconds remaining, and Washington had a 4th-and-1 from the Dallas 49-yard line. Since the Commanders were out of field-goal range, they had no choice but to go for it.
Hooker was stationed deep in coverage as Washington snapped the ball, and it looked like Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons had stopped Commanders running back Austin Ekeler in the backfield for a game-sealing tackle. As a result, Hooker put up a celebratory fist. Unfortunately for him though, the ball never went to Ekeler at all as Washington quarterback Marcus Mariota had actually faked the handoff. Mariota kept the ball and scampered for the first down, picking up 33 yards before he was taken down.
Here is the video.
@PFTCommenter @kevinsheehanDC @JPFinlayNBCS Malik Hooker doesn’t realize Mariota has the ball and prematurely #commanders #cowboys pic.twitter.com/OQxX1xm0lh
— Chef Disaster (@chef_disastrous) January 5, 2025
Hooker was at least able to save some kind of face there by going into a full sprint to tackle Mariota himself. But it was still absolutely humiliating that Hooker was so badly fooled, to the point that he was celebrating a backfield tackle that was never made.
The sequence ended up being costly for the Cowboys as it set up a go-ahead touchdown pass from Mariota to Terry McLaurin just three plays later as the Commanders went on to win 23-19. Ultimately, you would think opponents would know by now to never ever celebrate too early against Washington.
