Since taking over from Pete Rozelle as commissioner of the National Football League, Roger Goodell has made sure that any holes he’s found in the NFL’s gigantic dyke get themselves plugged.
If there is something wrong with the league, whether it’s player behaviour or rules that make little sense, Goodell has been a fixer. He’ll punish idiots who act-out off the field and on and he’ll fix the messes left by GMs and coaches who attend competition committee meetings and pass stupid rules simply as a way to get a leg up on their competition.
Earlier this week, Goodell told the competition committee that he was unhappy with a rule that was really, really stupid and needed to be amended. The Commish said he was going to make “an administrative change” before the post-season began in order to prevent the type of mistake which occurred on Sunday in Pittsburgh from ever happening again.
The change would allow the referee on the field to consult with the replay booth more than once on any specific play. As it is, the referee can talk with the booth only once. That’s stupid. Joe Aiello and I discussed this earlier in the week on 92-CITI-FM. It’s perhaps the dumbest rule in a rulebook filled with dumb rules, but it once again makes clear that the NFL, and especially the NFL’s officials, don’t understand the point of replay.
Replay doesn’t exist to second guess officials. It exists as a tool for officials — good ones or bad ones — to make the right call.
Early Sunday evening, when the Pittsburgh Steelers had a touchdown called back because referee Scott Greene was allowed to be a complete bonehead (or a sufferer of sudden football blindness), it cost gamblers and fanatsy players millions of dollars.
Goodell, to his credit, knows that football’s gambling component and that continent full of fantasy games, have helped the NFL reach the pinnacle of all sports leagues in the United States. The last thing Goodell needs to do is piss those people off.
Scott Greene might get himself in trouble if he ever shows up in Vegas. People there were ready to take out his knees after he took Troy Polamalu’s touchdown off the board. That game should have ended 18-10, not 11-10, and those who bet on Pittsburgh should have won and been paid. So what if the NFL’s official stance is that gambling is bad. Gambling has made the NFL what it is today.
In the meantime, Goodell needs to make replay work because heaven knows the officials don’t make all the correct calls. His directive to the competition committee was the right one.