If New England wins the Super Bowl, they complete football’s longest undefeated season, earn their fourth title in seven years, and ensure they will be remembered until the sun implodes or soccer catches on in America, whichever comes first. Incidentally, this is Patriots’ receiver Randy Moss’ second brush with eternal fame. In 1998, the then-rookie keyed the Minnesota Vikings’ unprecedented offensive explosion as they surged to a 16-1 record… only to have his team lose in overtime to the Atlanta Falcons and sink into a morass of sex party boat rides and ticket-scalping coach scandals. In honor of Randy’s shot at redemption, count down the people who nearly reached the Heavens only to have hubris or plain bad luck trigger an unexpected return to the muck.
#1. Steven Hill
Could Have Been Brando
Martin Landau once said, “When I first became an actor, there were two young actors in New York: Marlon Brando and Steven Hill. A lot of people said that Steven would have been the one, not Marlon. He was legendary. Nuts, volatile, mad, and his work was exciting.” One of these men went on to revolutionize acting and win two Oscars. What happened to Hill? Orthodox Judaism! Deciding he needed to devote himself to his faith, he chose to honor the Sabbath by not working from sunset on Friday to sunset Saturday (believe it or not, some producers felt this could be inconvenient for a production). He finally achieved a taste of success playing D.A. Adam Schiff on Law & Order only to have his happy days of bantering with A.D.A. McCoy come to an end when he was replaced by Nora Lewin (screw you, Dianne Wiest!). That said, he was awesome in Yentl. (Photo by Ron Galella/WireImage.com)
