The owner of the Dallas Cowboys’ longest kick return in 2011 thus far isn’t who you’d think. It’s not Dez Bryant or Dwayne Harris, dynamic playmakers who could seemingly go for six at any time. Rather, it’s Sean Lissemore, the back-up defensive end who is listed at 6-foot-4 and 306 pounds.
In what was easily the most amusing play of last week’s Cowboys-Lions game, Detroit’s kicker, Jason Hanson, slipped and fell on a kickoff. The kick found the arms of Lissemore, who returned it 38 yards--as we’ve said, the longest return of the season for Dallas, and the longest since December of last year.
“I made the first cut and I felt like I was in space, so I was like, ‘Oh, this is pretty good,’ then I was thinking about getting up the sideline and protecting the ball,” Lissemore said, per ESPN Dallas. “I wish I would’ve switched the ball so I could have stiff armed the guy. I don’t know. Beggars can’t be choosers, know what I mean?”
After the game, Lissemore’s phone was teeming with text messages, not regarding the Cowboys’ epic collapse, but the big man’s first kick return.
“People were asking me, ‘Was that you?’ What are you doing back there catching a kickoff?’” Lissemore said. “I didn’t know the kicker slipped until I watched the film and saw it. I thought he was trying to kick it to me because normally you put a guy like me back there and they target you’ve got a tight end and a kick returner and a defensive lineman with his hands taped up, hey, let’s hit it to him and see what happens.”
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