MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP/WNCN) - The most notable catch Saturday during the game between No. 22 Miami and Appalachian State didn’t even happen on the field.
Wasn’t even a football. It was a cat.
The animal somehow got into Hard Rock Stadium, then got caught by one of its paws off the facade of the upper deck. It eventually fell to the lower level of the stadium, where fans using an American flag as a makeshift net of sorts were able to safely catch it before it was carried off to safety.
“They were trying to grab it from above and they couldn’t reach it but they were scaring it downward,” said Craig Cromer, a facilities manager at the University of Miami and season-ticket holder who with his wife Kimberly brings the flag to each home game. “It hung there for a little while with its two front paws, then one paw, then I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, it’s coming soon.’”
That’s when the Cromers unhooked the flag from the ties they use to keep it on a railing and hoped for the best. The petrified cat fell, bounced a bit off the flag and eventually was secured by some in the nearby student section before being brought away by stadium security workers.
Ron Friedman, who was at the game and captured video of the incident, said the cat was stuck between the wall and a banner before it fell. Friedman said he had no idea how it got there.
Yianni Laros who was at the game also captured video of the cat's fall. His video (seen above) had more than 1 million views as of 11 p.m. Saturday.
The Hard Rock Stadium later said the cat was safe.
"We are happy that due to the heads-up nature of fans in sections 107, 110 & 208 the cat landed safely after a harrowing fall. We wish the cat the best in his remaining eight lives," the venue said in a statement on Twitter.
The Cromers, other than a spilled beverage and getting sprayed by the dangling cat, were otherwise fine.
“Strangest thing that’s ever happened at a game,” Kimberly Cromer said.
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