After debating whether to begin with a tasteless Hellen Keller joke right out of the box, let’s get right to the unintentionally disastrous scenario in last night’s ASU-UCLA tackle football game:

Early second quarter, UCLA leads 3-0. The Sun Devils brought a solid blitz at Bruins quarterback Kevin Craft, who got a helmet clashed into the elbow. The hit poked the ball out of his hand at their own 20 yard line, which originally appeared to be an incomplete pass and dead ball.

Both teams let up and froze awaiting the next play. A mere moment after UCLA’s Derrick Coleman, a deaf tailback, picked up the seemingly dead ball, ASU’s Paul Unga slapped it out of Coleman’s hands and easily jogged into the endzone for a touchdown.

How that happened: Nobody blew the whistle, so Coleman didn’t realize the play was still live. And judging by the reactions from his teammates, who would’ve guessed otherwise?

Players, coaches and fans looked dumbfounded. No whistle was ever blown, but the pure assumption from Coleman’s visual surroundings gave ASU a 7-3 lead, eventually going on to beat the Bruins, 34-9

By no stretch of the imagination was this play a game-defining, fourth-and-Rose-Bowl-berth situation. But really, could there be a more freak scenario? This is a guy, with hearing aids in both ears, that must look directly at the quarterback’s mouth to read his lips and get the play.

And to be put in the exact situation on a play that completely revolved around this little detail of not hearing a whistle — really, what are the odds?

Given this year’s extremes in sports stories (Tiger’s incredible U.S. Open victory; most epic Nadal-Federer Wimbledon; eight gold metals for Phelps; the Rays reaching the W.S.) this play certainly deserves a spot as one of the least likely scenarios of 2008 — with still plenty of games to be played in December.