Sunday’s action in the NFL was capped by New England’s victory at Pittsburgh in which rookie tight end Rob Gronkowski caught three touchdown passes for the Patriots.

Soon after the game, “Gronkowski” was trending on Twitter.

As for former Arizona Wildcats in the NFL, that wasn’t the half of it Sunday.

Mike Thomas, a second-year receiver with the Jacksonville Jaguars, was involved in the play of the day (the season?), catching a deflected Hail Mary pass from David Garrard for a last-play touchdown for a 31-24 win over Houston.

And it never hurts to have Gus Johnson on the call.

“It was definitely a surprise,” Thomas said. “You don’t expect that kind of play to go the way it’s supposed to go. I was shocked and a little stunned.”

Look for Money Mike to be on ESPN First Take on Monday morning to talk about the catch.

Elsewhere, there will be headlines for the first career touchdown pass from Denver Broncos rookie quarterback Tim Tebow. I didn’t much care about that one way or the other. I prefer to think of it as the first career touchdown for ex-Cat linebacker Spencer Larsen, now a full-time fullback with the Broncos.

Larsen almost never touches the ball; he had one carry and three receptions before Sunday. And, now, he’s the guy who caught Tebow’s first touchdown pass. You can see video of it here.

And then there was Gronkowski, catching three touchdown passes to give him six scores for the season. He had five catches for 72 yards in the 39-26 victory over the Steelers.

Oh yeah …

Can’t forget about the best ex-Wildcat in the NFL: Chicago Bears linebacker Lance Briggs. He intercepted a pass from Brett Favre and had five solo tackles as Chicago beat Minnesota 27-13.

Even former Arizona kicker Nick Folk was part of the drama on a thrilling Sunday. He was only 2 of 5 on field goal attempts — missing from 48, 24 and 47 yards (in overtime) — but the Jets still won 26-20 at Cleveland, getting a touchdown in the final minute to let Folk off the hook.

All in all, perhaps the best day ever for ex-Wildcats in the NFL.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 14th, 2010 at 10:38 pm and is filed under Sports. Tags for this post: Lance Briggs, Mike Thomas, Nick Folk, Rob Gronkowski, Spencer Larsen. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.