Shaun Gayle Continues To Have Shortest Punt Return Touchdown in Postseason History

Published on March 11th, 2025 11:27 pm EST
Written By: Dave Manuel


A 5-yard punt return touchdown in the playoffs? It actually happened.

The 1985 postseason featured the Chicago Bears at the height of their powers. The Bears' defense was one of the greatest of all time, absolutely obliterating their opponents en route to easy post-season victories.

The 16-1 Chicago Bears squared off against the 11-7 New York Giants in a divisional round playoff game on January 5th, 1986.

The Bears were absolutely manhandling their opponents, as their defense was giving opposing teams nightmares.

The game against the Giants was more of the same, with the Bears winning by a score of 21-0.

The Giants managed just 32 yards on the ground and Phil Simms was sacked a total of six times.

Early on in the game, the Giants were clearly showing signs of nerves.

The punter for the Giants, Sean Landeta, shanked a punt early on in the game that resulted in the Bears scoring a touchdown.

Shaun Gayle, a DB for the Bears, could barely believe his luck when the shanked Landeta punt basically sailed into his arms.

The Giants had no idea what was going on, as they were expecting the ball to travel far down the far.

Instead, they heard the roar of the crowd and looked around to see Gayle scampering into the endzone, completely untouched. Landeta looked sheepish as the Giants were suddenly down 7-0 on the road to the feared Chicago Bears.

The Giants were forced to try to open things up a bit after that, and the Bears would make them pay.

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The crazy thing about the Landeta punt is that the conditions were essentially perfect at Soldier Field that day.

There was no rain or snow or wind to blame - it was simply one of those unfortunate circumstances when a punter took his eye off of the ball and was made to pay the price.