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Monday, Nov 23, 2009
To err is human, which explains why the drones who run the NFL can't understand the beauty of an honest mistake. Plus: Divisional round picks.
Jan 10, 2003 | How perfect it is that the NFL, that technocratic bastion of correctness at any price, including the quality of the product, should be embarrassed by human error in one of the most important games of the year and, just so it would escape no one's notice, a game involving a New York team.
A league that thinks nothing of constantly interrupting the flow of action to review plays on videotape in a futile attempt to ensure that every detail of a game is being officiated correctly ("The Panthers are challenging the spot of the ball") had to apologize after field officials blew the call -- spectacularly -- on the last play of Sunday's 49ers-Giants playoff game. The Giants, who had blown a 24-point second half lead, should have been given another chance to kick what would have been a 41-yard game-winning field goal, but the officials failed to call the proper offsetting penalties.
Rejoice! O, sloppy, fallible humanity! Poetry, danger, freedom and sin triumph over the gleaming sterility of soulless perfection!
That's how I look at it anyway, as a fan of the game who had no rooting interest in the Giants-Niners tilt. Giants fans don't see it that way, of course, and neither do the humorless drones who run the NFL, who were last seen threatening to fine any players who wore high-top shoes as a tribute to Johnny Unitas and who spent their entire childhood, every one of them, coloring inside the lines and carefully stepping around puddles.
Rather than just saying that, yup, the refs blew the call, and they'll get a bad grade on the game but hey, these things happen, NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue -- who word has it has never, not once, wiped his nose on his sleeve -- was so mortified by Sunday's events that he ordered a change in the way officials align themselves on field goals, so that they might better monitor the goings-on.
There's nothing wrong with trying to improve the officiating, but that's a matter for the off-season. It's a strange sport indeed that changes the rules, or the way they're enforced, in the middle of a season. It means that, ever so slightly, the teams playing this weekend are engaging in a different game than the ones who played last weekend.
The NFL has a history of such high-handedness. Thirteen years ago, just before the Cincinnati Bengals and Buffalo Bills were to play in the AFC Championship Game, the league outlawed the no-huddle offense, an exciting tactic the Bengals had been using throughout the regular season and playoffs. (Kids, ask Mom and Dad about the time the Bengals had a good team!) The Bengals had to abandon the no-huddle, though the fates smiled on them and they won anyway. Two years later the legality of the no-huddle had been rehabilitated, and the Bills, whose complaints had led to the ban, went to a no-huddle attack that took them to four Super Bowls.
Still, the rejiggering of the officials on the field during kicks is a minor point that most of us won't even notice. What really needs to change on field goals is the television coverage.
Over the last few years, the TV networks have grown fond of showing us field goals through a camera high above the defensive end zone. From behind the defense, we look through the uprights and down the field toward the line of scrimmage. The idea is that we can see the majestic flight of the ball on this, football's most boring play.
There are three interesting things that can happen on a placekick: a fake, a bungled snap or a blocked kick. None of these are visible from that end zone camera. What we see is a bunch of ants scrambling around about a quarter mile away. Fox actually did a good job of showing that botched snap in San Francisco, employing a camera in the other end zone, behind the kicking team, with a fairly close shot of the play. Had the Giants gotten the kick away, the camera would have tilted up and followed it through or wide of the uprights. Whatever happened, we'd have seen it clearly. What a concept!
Maybe New York's loss will be our gain if the networks learn that that's the best way to cover a placekick. Don't hold your breath.
