The butt fumble is no more. Long live the butt fumble.

On Friday, SportsCenter announced they were retiring Mark Sanchez's infamous play from their not top ten list after an unprecedented 40 weeks on top. And of course, because of how legendary the butt fumble was, ESPN went all out in honoring the play.

John Brenkus put together a Sport Science piece about the play, complete with Brenkus running into DJ Moore's butt (which had sensors – yes, sensors – on it) multiple times. Jeremy Schaap wrote one of his trademark essays about the play. You can't get much more renowned than that. ESPN Senior Coordinating Producer Mark Summer had this to say about the retirement.

“We are retiring it this week due to the start of a new NFL season, and the feeling that it was time to start fresh. The ‘Butt Fumble’ has won the ‘Not Top 10′ each week since last Thanksgiving, and we’re not sure anything could top it.”

Yes, all of this attention to the butt fumble is over the top. But hey, it's better than a 20 minute discussion about whether or not the NFL should restart NFL Europe just to let Tim Tebow thrive as a quarterback.

[ESPN]

About Joe Lucia

I hate your favorite team. I also sort of hate most of my favorite teams.