A Hail Mary You Didn't Even Throw - TBH 399
Touched by Heaven - Everyday Encounters with God
Philip Keller
4.8 • 720 Ratings
🗓️ 28 December 2025
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
"I just saw this bright, golden, light. It encompassed me. And in the middle of that light was the most beautiful face."
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Fifty years ago today, with seconds left on the clock, a quarterback launched a desperate pass and later said, "I closed my eyes and said a Hail Mary." The phrase stuck -- a last-ditch effort when human ability runs out.
As I record this episode, I'm reading Project Hail Mary -- a story about humanity's final attempt to save the world. A last play. A long shot. A mission resting on grace.
But tucked inside this episode is something even more striking.
In Episode 246, Darron wasn't throwing a Hail Mary at all. And yet -- at the very last seconds of a supposed past-life regression -- the Blessed Mother arrived anyway. Uninvited. Unmistakable. Pointing him not to herself, but to her Son.
Because sometimes, when time is up…
You don't even have to throw the prayer.
She comes running.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It was exactly 50 years ago today, and it was also a Sunday, as I post this, it was Sunday, December 28, 1975. |
| 0:13.9 | And quarterback, Roger Stobach, Dallas Cowboys, fades back to pass. |
| 0:17.5 | Clock is ticking down. |
| 0:18.7 | It's the playoffs. |
| 0:19.7 | The Vikings are rushing, |
| 0:29.8 | and Roger just flings it. 60 plus yards towards the end zone. And Drew Pearson catches it for the touchdown. Cowboys win, eventually to make it to the Super Bowl. And reporter said, |
| 0:35.4 | what was going on, Roger? And Roger said, well, I threw the ball and I closed my eyes and I set a Hail Mary. |
| 0:42.4 | And thus came the phrase throwing a hell Mary. |
| 0:46.0 | That's the origin story of the saying. |
| 0:49.7 | 50 years ago today. |
| 0:51.6 | And now you know the rest of the story. Well, Trapper, what does that have to do |
| 0:57.2 | with any of this? I wanted to know where it all began because I just finished a book just |
| 1:01.4 | hour ago, and it's called Project Hail Mary. It was written by an agnostic. It's a sci-fi book, |
| 1:08.1 | Project Hail Mary. It's going to be a movie. It comes out in March, 2026. |
| 1:12.0 | But in the movie, our hero, Dr. Rylan Grace. |
| 1:15.6 | Yes, his last name is Grace. |
| 1:17.2 | Yes, Hail Mary full of grace. |
| 1:19.6 | Yes. |
| 1:20.6 | The author said he couldn't resist. |
| 1:22.0 | Anyway, he's deep in space, throwing the long bomb, throwing the last second desperation, save the earth, pass, |
| 1:29.8 | if you will. |
| 1:31.2 | Project Hail Mary. |
... |
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