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Derek Carr ignites Raiders-Steelers rivalry, says Immaculate Reception ball 'touched the ground'

Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Derek Carr is feeling pretty good about the team's walk-off win in Week 1. Carr decided to channel his confidence into some elite trash talk Wednesday, implying one of the most well-known plays in NFL history is actually a lie.

With the Raiders set to play the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 2, you know Carr was talking about the Immaculate Reception. Carr's official stance on the matter is that the play shouldn't have counted.

If you really want to dig into Carr's claim ... we could be here all day. Debates over whether the tip of the football touched the ground before Franco Harris snagged it and ran it in for a game-winning touchdown have existed since the play occurred in 1972.

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With 22 seconds left in the game, Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw threw up a fourth-down pass that bounced off John Fuqua and was miraculously caught by Harris, who scored the game-winning touchdown in the final seconds.

Camera angles of the play don't clearly show whether the ball touched the ground, as Carr claims.

If you don't know the repercussions of that play, well, they were huge. Harris' touchdown eliminated the Raiders from the playoffs. The Steelers moved on to the AFC Championship, where they lost to the Miami Dolphins.

The Immaculate Reception is viewed as a turning point for the Steelers' franchise, which had struggled mightily for four decades before the win over the Raiders. The team's went on to win four Super Bowl titles in the 1970s.

Derek Carr kickstarts rivalry with Steelers fans

Carr's trash talk is unlikely to rile up any current Steelers players. Ben Roethlisberger wasn't even alive when the Immaculate Reception occurred.

It should rile up Steelers fans who look back fondly on the play. And it lets Raiders fans know Carr has their back.

Other than that, you can't expect Carr's comments to have an impact on the matchup. He's merely building hype for the game, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Derek Carr with the Raiders.
Derek Carr started the Steelers trash talk early. (Photo by Kiyoshi Mio/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)