The 1992 and 1993 season champions, the Dallas Cowboys, were all set to create history in the 1994 season. By that time, they had established themselves as one of the dominant teams. However, they were met with an equally strong San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship, and the Cowboys’ hopes of winning the Super Bowl went out like a light. To this day, former Cowboys wide receiver Michael Irvin still remembers the one play that hurt him the most.

“The one play that there’s not a day go by that I don’t think about, it was the play down that sideline where I had Deion, and I could have gone up and caught that ball,” Michael Irvin said on Champion Mindset with Daniel Cormier. I could have gone up, I think, I should have gone up and reached its highest peak to make a play.

“But at the time, you know, we’re down 11. I wanted to catch that thing and extend that thing and raise with a touchdown, you know. And I did, and Dion caught my hand. I thought it was a PI, and they didn’t call it. That one play right there, no matter what, I think about every day of my life. I think about that one play because nobody’s ever done three in a row. It’s hard.”

Late in the fourth quarter, the Dallas Cowboys trailed 38-28 with about 6 minutes and 30 seconds left. Quarterback Troy Aikman threw a deep pass down the left sideline to Michael Irvin, who was running alongside Deion Sanders.

As the ball came down, Sanders reached across with an arm against Irvin’s torso, stopping him from raising his hands to catch the pass. The pass was rendered incomplete. No flag was thrown for what many regarded as a pass interference, making it one of the most-debated no-calls in the league’s history.

No team had come close to recording a third consecutive win in a Super Bowl at that time. But this one move ended it all for the Cowboys.

The missed call made Cowboys head coach Barry Switzer furious. He argued with the officials, but instead of penalizing the 49ers, the referees gave Switzer an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. It set the Cowboys up for 3rd-and-25, and they eventually turned the ball over on downs.

Ironically, Sanders joined the very team he spoiled the party for the next season.

Now, both are way past that and have become really close friends. Sanders and Irvin played together for the Cowboys from 1995 to 1999. During that time, they helped Dallas win Super Bowl XXX and became even closer friends. Their friendship stayed strong even after both retired from the NFL.

Last year, Irvin came to visit Deion Sanders at his Texas home, who was recovering from surgery to treat bladder cancer. We now know that the latter was in immense pain during those days, but his condition was apparently so poor that Irvin was moved to tears. He had also appealed to fans to pray for Sanders.

“We’ve always been the same dude,” Sanders told Irvin last year in August. “No matter when I call you. No matter what you going through, we going to do what? We going to laugh the first two minutes,” he said, before the two friends burst into laughter.