I was on the field when Brett Bell touched the punt. I won’t forget it.

I’m sure the same is true for the thousands of stunned fans at Camp Randall.

It was one of those games that lends itself to the realm of memorability, and it would have been so even without the wacky ending.

Maybe it’s because it was Michigan. Maybe it’s because a loss eliminated the Badgers from a bowl, but there was a sort of tension unlike any I’ve ever seen at a football game.

The fourth quarter was tied for 14 minutes and 10 seconds, and every tick of the clock grew more intense. Camp Randall was surging with energy, the air practically crackling as 80,000 people anticipated something was about to happen. Something huge.

Something they would not forget.

When Wisconsin was in the process of seizing momentum, midway through the third quarter when John Navarre was beginning to look more and more like a punching bag, the place turned into a kind of bubbling volcano.

Navarre’s pocket collapsed and Nick Greisen came flying in like a meteor and the ball shot out and so did a tremendous roar.

I kept waiting for the UW sound crew to play House of Pain so I could watch the bleachers and walls literally crumble. Maybe they were worried about the same thing, so they played it during the quarter-change when there was a lull in the seemingly nonstop action.

But after the Badgers tied the game at 17, everything seemed to stop. It was like a tie game was meant to be — as if some sort of cosmic tide would keep the players on the field forever, caught in a timeless football spectacle to be appreciated by future generations.

The defenses tightened their belts, and the game seemed to be holding its breath. It had some company.

Even the press box was different. Usually, everyone acts as if they’re walking in their sleep, with a glaze in their eyes and a sort of lazy sports-writing-is-so-mindless-I’m-going-to-act-disgruntled attitude. But Saturday the place was abuzz. During the fourth quarter — the same time everyone in the stadium were wide-eyed in anticipation – people in the press box started milling around, acting busy in a sort of deliberate, excited way.

Then Wisconsin went on one of those drives. One of those nothing-is-going-to-stop-me-because-I’m-John-Elway drives where everyone is certain the Badges will score.

Penalties slowed down the beginning, as the teams shifted back and forth several times before any actual plays counted, but once the drive got going it was like a rumbling, unbreakable wave.
And all of a sudden I was on the field, watching Mark Neuser push a field goal wide right.

The impossible endless game seemed possible again until that moment everyone had forgotten they were waiting for. Until Brett Bell touched the punt.

And then Michigan was celebrating and I was pacing the small spot I’d staked out on the sidelines uttering one word over and over. It is the same word that appears in the headline at the top of the sports page.

I made my loyalty known last week, but I would never want anyone to lose like that. Wisconsin’s 13 seniors deserve better. They won’t forget the game either.