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Sports

Rutgers Player Returns Kickoff for 80-Yard TD, One Half Too Late for Students' $100,000 Prize

Rutgers fans have never felt so disappointed in a touchdown in their lives.

The gods are playing some kind of cruel joke on the Rutgers' student body. Rutgers promised a prize of $100,000—presented by Autoland of Springfield, N.J.—for 100 randomly-selected students if Rutgers ran their first kick return for a touchdown in today's game against Norfolk State.

Then, as if by miracle, Rutgers Janarion Grant returned a kick for an astounding 80-yard touchdown. The catch: it was one half of a football game too late.

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The junior, Grant, whose first-ever touch in collegiate football back in 2013 was a 100-yard kick return, made it to about their own 35 on their first return, and the crowd was audibly disappointed.

The typical assurance that you get from these kinds of things is that you think to yourself, "there's no way this is going to happen, but isn't this fun?" And then it doesn't happen, and you were right: it's still fun. But this whole after-the-fact scenario pulls the rug out from under that fun. Autoland of Springfield, on the other hand, is probably having a blast with that $100,000 extra dollars they have lying around.

Everything feels oddly reminiscent of the infamous Thunderball halftime prize incident of 2000.

Rutgers fans have never felt so disappointed in a touchdown in their lives.

[h/t Bleacher Report]