As I watch the NFL and become ever more impressed with the incredible athletic skills of the athletes, I must admit, I tend to watch The League now with a jaundiced eye. There is something wrong with the officiating.
I’m not sure what it is and I am sure it’s always been there, to some degree, but these days I watch certain crews and I wonder if something might be a little, umm, well, fishy.
For instance, there is holding, of some kind, on every, single play, but more often that not, holding is only called when it has an effect on a big play. And what is quite disconcerting is that, far too often, it only brings back the big plays of certain teams in certain situations. In other words, holding might be called early in a game on one team when a drive hasn’t even started. Suddenly, at midfield on their second possession, Team A, has a first-and-20, and well, so what?
However, Team B gets hit with a holding call on second and 10 from the opposition’s 15 with 0:45 to play and forces Team B into an impossible situation. It’s almost inevitable and it happens in almost every game.
Sunday, I watched a couple of plays that were simply, well, phony. And, interstingly, the NFL noticed. This from nfl.com:
MIAMI — An officiating mistake negated a late fumble at the goal line by Ben Roethlisberger and the Piuttsburgh Steelers kicked the game-winning field goal on the next play Sunday.
Jeff Reed made an 18-yarder with 2:30 left, and the Steelers escaped with a 23-22 win.
One play earlier, with Pittsburgh trailing 20-19 and facing third-and-goal at the 2, Roethlisberger fumbled as he dived across the goal line on a quarterback draw. The play was ruled a touchdown as both teams scrambled for the loose ball in the end zone.
After a replay review, referee Gene Steratore announced that Roethlisberger fumbled before scoring. But Steratore said his crew had no clear evidence as to which team recovered the ball, and the Steelers were awarded possession at the half-yard line, allowing Reed to kick the winner.
Wow! Everybody watching that game saw the replay and it seems everybody saw a Miami player come up with the football. Why did Steratore and his crew miss it? What is the purpose of replay? What is it with the Steelers and controversial wins? What is it with NFL officiating?
Having said that, I won’t get started on the Vikings-Packers game in Green Bay on Sunday night. That one smelled of fish and, of course, every time Scott Green calls a game, he looks worried when a call goes against one team and quite enthusiastic when it goes against the other. It’s just an odd look and if it weren’t for HD TV, we’d probably never notice.
Of course, if it wasn’t for Sport Select here in Canada, we’d probably never care.
VIKINGS POST SCRIPT (3:18 p.m. Monday)
On a day when Vikings head coach Brad Childress announced that quarterback Brett Favre had two small ankle fractures, he also said the league had backed his assertion that Vikes tight end Visanthe Shiancoe should have been awarded a touchdown on a pass from Favre in the second quarter. The play was originally called a touchdown, but was overturned after a challenge and then, replay. Scott Green was the official who overturned the play on replay.
There is something fishy about Scott Green.
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FINALLY. SOMEBODY SAID IT
Kudos to the Detroit Free Press for noticing this one:
Mike Florio from ProFootballTalk.com and now nbcsports.com, was talking about the NFL’s crackdown on head-to-head hits on a Boston radio show last Tuesday when, inexplicably, he went off.
His target: Matt Millen.
Apparently, Millen had debated the topic on “Monday Night Football.” The Detroit Free Press said he argued “on the side of you-can’t-legislate-the-violence-out-of-football.”
“How does no one realize that this guy has only demonstrated he doesn’t know anything?” Florio said incongruously. “I can’t listen to anything he says. … Every time I see his face on the screen, it’s like, in my brain, 0-16 superimposes over the screen, and I can’t get past that. Maybe other people can.
“But I don’t understand … how you can have no shame and want to continue to be out there?
“Kind of like, ‘Hey, look at me. You know what, I took all those millions from the Fords and I was completely inept, and now I’m taking even more money from ESPN and the NFL Network just because I can sit here and sound like I know what I’m talking about.”
Somebody had to say it. Thanks to the Detroit Free Press for hearing it and reporting on it.