Black Cat Storms The Field on Monday Night Football, Wins The Internet

Scott McDonald

By Scott McDonald

Deputy Night Editor

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The clocks went back one hour over the weekend, but a scene at MetLife Stadium on Monday night set the calendar back almost a week—to Halloween. During the Monday Night Football contest between the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants, a black cat prowled across the field and caused stoppage in the game, and perhaps the outcome.

With roughly five and a half minutes remaining in the first half, and the Giants leading, 9-3, a black cat was spotted on the turf. The ESPN cameras followed the wicked-looking cat as it scooted across midfield with a scowl, all the way to the end zone.

Both teams looked rather lethargic before the black cat appeared, with the Giants scoring their lone touchdown before the feline-to-goal-line scat. The Cowboys found new blood afterwards, scoring a touchdown and a field goal to take a 13-12 lead.

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Should Cowboys owner Jerry Jones adopt the cat should the Cowboys turn it around to win? Well, the Cowboys went on to win the game, 37-18, even with a little late magic.

Dallas (5-3) holds more than a three-game lead over New York (2-7) in the NFC East near the midway point of the NFL season. This game is pivotal for divisional standings with the Philadelphia Eagles lurking just behind the Cowboys.

And though the NFC East has teams like Cowboys, Giants, Eagles and Redskins—all storied franchises each with at least one Vince Lombardi Trophy for winning the Super Bowl—it was black cat fever that got Twitter revved up Monday night.

One Twitter user named Hawkeye said black cats replace rats that would otherwise run stadium grounds in sports.

"Little known fact: most stadiums have a number of cats that live at the facility. With the amount of food left behind by fans, if you didn't have these 'barn cats' you would have a major rat problem," they wrote.

And NFL Memes wasn't nice to the other New York team with this tweet: "This black cat has spent more time in the MetLife Stadium endzone than the NY Jets."

Here are some of the remarks circulating:

SB Nation wrote "MetLife Stadium has been spooky this season