In a lifetime of writing about football, I have found one truth and it this: It is humanly impossible to fairly officiate a professional football game.
At least no one did a bat flip, or hold their bat out over the plate in their totally normal post-pitch routine so that the catcher's throw back to the pitcher would hit it and lead to a run scoring....
I was utterly outraged by Collinsworth's blathering on OBJ - made it sound like the Browns were the worst since Scrooge. MF'er quit on the team, his daddy helped out, and he absolutely forced his way out of town. Nobody was gonna trade for him, so pay him off and cut him was what he wanted, and what he got. I reiterate - HE GOT PAID! Rams got him for almost nothing, and all of a sudden he's playing hero ball again? I've always respected Chris Collinsworth, but now? That was bush league.
I don't know. I think about that quote, I can't remember the exact circumstances but it was about a MLB manager who was having problems with his star player. The quote is, "Anybody who can't get along with a .350 hitter is crazy." Managing difficult talents is part of management's job.
What I find funny is that in the biggest game of the year, NBC never once went to their rules analyst (Terry McCauley?) to get his take on things. Seems really odd because during the regular season, they go to him for the most inane things.
The Vonn Bell call was terrible not only because it wasn't a real helmet-to-helmet hit of the type that the game is trying to eliminate, but because it seemed that he got called for hitting Cooper Kupp too hard when Kupp was what the game *sometimes* calls "defenseless". That was a catch to win or lose the Super Bowl. I don't know how you can flag a guy for a hard hit in a situation where he absolutely needs to try to separate the receiver from the ball at the risk of losing the Super Bowl. Terrible.
Ken Tremendous sent a tweet out congratulating Stan the not Man. I actually started with Mike Brown then moved to Stan and decided I do not need to watch either team. I know that I am not target audience anymore but first time ever, I did not watch a single minute of the game. Did not miss it. All the commercials are reviewed the next day. Looks like I should have watched the half time show though.
It was funny, right before the refs started calling all those penalties, I remarked that they really weren't calling a lot of penalties, unlike last year's game. Then Al Michaels remarked on the lack of penalties, and then they started calling one on every play.
The holding call at the end seemed unbelievable at the time, giving how little the refs seemed to be watching the game. But I think at the end it was obvious to everyone that Stafford was going to throw the ball to Kupp no matter what. It was so obvious, I bet the refs were watching to make sure another Saints no-call PI debacle didn't happen again. And Cincy was holding and grabbing receivers on every play it seemed like. If the refs were actually watching Kupp, then it's the equivalent of having a cop with a radar gun pointed at you. You may drive that stretch of road for years without a ticket, but suddenly there's a cop with a radar gun clocking you going 70 in a 55, and you are done.
Then maybe it should have been obvious that the Bengals were going to throw to whoever Jalen Ramsey covered, and they could have called one or two of the times that Ramsey holds, because he does it all the time. (I am not a Bengals fan and have no grapes that are sour.)
That 3rd down tackle by Donald for no gain should go into his HoF video montage. He reached through two Bengals offensive linemen … with one arm. Normal mortals have said arm break by running back pinning arm backwards. Not Donald. Turned it into one armed tackle for no gain.
The sequence leading up to the Rams go-ahead TD felt like we were just going to see do-over's till the Rams scored. And it did seem like the refs got worse as the game went on. I think these two teams were pretty evenly matched so it's not like the game was thrown but JeezumChristmas...
The NFL's (and sports in general) officiating issue is there are ever more protections in place for the offense to goose the scoring + ever increasing player speed + everyone in America is watching on a 65" HD 4k LCD Soundsystem Google Smart OLED with THX Dolby Atmos in their basement so we can see the detail of every synapse firing.
Back when we were all 30' away from our 21" Zenith, you got one grainy replay at half-speed and your nephews Stu and Stevie took turns holding the antenna, these things were a bit less certain.
Two evenly matched erratic teams getting hot at the finish. Ok. Maybe Rams were sort of expected, after picking up Von Miller & OBJ mid-late season. Candidly, I know OBJ got hurt, but just HOW did Rams become so offensively hapless in Q3/Q4? OBJ wasn’t the center of their seasons offense … ever. Can someone explain what defensive adj. Bengals made?
OBJ was I think the focus of the game plan for the Rams if the Bengals swarmed the side of the field with Kupp on it. The Rams love to run a lot of 3x1 sets with Kupp and two other targets (usually another receiver and a tight end) on one side and OBJ on the other. In a straight cover two type shell, that overloads the side with multiple receivers and those choice routes where Kupp reads the defense and adjusts to their leverage are devastating. The answer is to bracket Kupp shifting another defender to that side, but then the counter to that for the Rams is to have OBJ one on one in the intermediate level beneath the safety over the top. You have to have a QB with a big arm to pull that off, and a QB willing to stand in the pocket an extra tick or two, but Stafford meets the bill on both counts. (Mayfield, not so much.)
The Rams simply didn't have another receiver capable of effecting the defense on the backside of the play nearly as much, and so the Bengals could bracket Kupp more readily without being punished for it.
Or … eliminate booth reviews entirely. Go back to famous (or infamous) plays. Keeps game moving. And in-game speed (without booths) keeps field refs from developing too fat a finger. Let’s be honest; booth reviews and “replay-to-get-calls-right” is another one of America’s misguided & broken attempts to ‘legalize’ all facets of life. In this case, plays IN A GAME played by THE HUMAN ANIMAL. Hard to find a more ludicrous ‘need’.
And it wasn’t the first time he lined up offsides and it wasn’t called.
I liked the No calls all game so I’m okay with it but the phantom holding call on third and goal leaves a real bad taste in my mouth. It just seemed like that typical NFL Big Market team call that tends to swing big games.
OBJ was brought into an old Browns regime and never wanted to be there. I completely get it.
But that's now two franchises that have moved on from him and his current team allows him to be the complimentary player he is now destined to be. He got a ring because he was motivated and in the right spot. He has his daddy to thanks!
The NFL loves controversary. This game was good, but will be talked about forever because of the mistakes. They never have to define anything, because as you say, the game moves too fast.
Football should have two refs on the field to place the ball down, throw flags, and keep the peace. But every decision they make should be fed to them by other refs who are watching the live action on a camera. We have enough cameras. We don’t need “replay.” We just need the live refs to use technology to better make the correct calls in the moment.
The downside of this is that, if they start calling all penalties to the letter of the law, it will just be endless penalties. I guess players will have to adjust, but I don't think the game really works if they call everything with no discretion.
Agree with this 100%. It would take less than five seconds to flag a play like the Higgins facemask or the Rams false start by a “booth ref.”
Here would be the keys to making it work: 1) the refs on the field understand the booth ref has final say and they need to be trained to follow their instructions as quickly as possible.
2) booth ref needs to understand situation and return calls immediately unless there is a natural break in the game—time out, turnover, TD, etc.
It wouldn’t be perfect, but if you got really good booth refs and treated it like a full-time job so they could practice/train it be a *huge* improvement, imo.
Correct, the field refs just do whatever the booth refs say. But my point is there’s only 2 refs on field and maybe 6 different booth refs. Each booth ref is watching their specific assignment. Same as they do today, except they are watching from a much better vantage point via overhead camera. How do you call holding when you are dodging crossing routes? Any booth ref could immediately buzz field ref to throw flag, signal incomplete, whatever. No replay. It would take some practice, but it could be much better than today.
This is actually more or less my answer to MLB replay as well: no challenges and no delays: if 2-3 TV umps don't see reason to overturn the call on the field before the next pitch is thrown (which is to say, 22 minutes), then the call on the field stands.
You mentioned that obvious false start, but to me it looked like there were obvious false starts the entire game on both teams. It looked like the tackles were always dropping back before the snap on pass plays. It was weird.
Agree. The play everyone points to in the last couple of minutes just looked like the center was off a half-beat. All four other linemen moved a split second before the snap.
At least no one did a bat flip, or hold their bat out over the plate in their totally normal post-pitch routine so that the catcher's throw back to the pitcher would hit it and lead to a run scoring....
I was utterly outraged by Collinsworth's blathering on OBJ - made it sound like the Browns were the worst since Scrooge. MF'er quit on the team, his daddy helped out, and he absolutely forced his way out of town. Nobody was gonna trade for him, so pay him off and cut him was what he wanted, and what he got. I reiterate - HE GOT PAID! Rams got him for almost nothing, and all of a sudden he's playing hero ball again? I've always respected Chris Collinsworth, but now? That was bush league.
I don't know. I think about that quote, I can't remember the exact circumstances but it was about a MLB manager who was having problems with his star player. The quote is, "Anybody who can't get along with a .350 hitter is crazy." Managing difficult talents is part of management's job.
That final sentence is what makes Joe the best
Really good one, but I liked this one better: "...that was when the aliens came and replaced Mahomes with Jamarcus Russell in disguise."
What I find funny is that in the biggest game of the year, NBC never once went to their rules analyst (Terry McCauley?) to get his take on things. Seems really odd because during the regular season, they go to him for the most inane things.
The Vonn Bell call was terrible not only because it wasn't a real helmet-to-helmet hit of the type that the game is trying to eliminate, but because it seemed that he got called for hitting Cooper Kupp too hard when Kupp was what the game *sometimes* calls "defenseless". That was a catch to win or lose the Super Bowl. I don't know how you can flag a guy for a hard hit in a situation where he absolutely needs to try to separate the receiver from the ball at the risk of losing the Super Bowl. Terrible.
I just don't see the "lined up offsides" on the last play. His helmet is mayyyybe overlapping the tip of the ball/white line of scrimmage, but because of the angle, I can't be certain. It would easily rank last among all of these missed/wrong calls as far as how egregious it was. https://www.nfl.com/videos/can-t-miss-play-aaron-donald-s-pressure-on-burrow-seals-super-bowl-lvi-win-for-r
Ken Tremendous sent a tweet out congratulating Stan the not Man. I actually started with Mike Brown then moved to Stan and decided I do not need to watch either team. I know that I am not target audience anymore but first time ever, I did not watch a single minute of the game. Did not miss it. All the commercials are reviewed the next day. Looks like I should have watched the half time show though.
No one cares.
It was funny, right before the refs started calling all those penalties, I remarked that they really weren't calling a lot of penalties, unlike last year's game. Then Al Michaels remarked on the lack of penalties, and then they started calling one on every play.
The holding call at the end seemed unbelievable at the time, giving how little the refs seemed to be watching the game. But I think at the end it was obvious to everyone that Stafford was going to throw the ball to Kupp no matter what. It was so obvious, I bet the refs were watching to make sure another Saints no-call PI debacle didn't happen again. And Cincy was holding and grabbing receivers on every play it seemed like. If the refs were actually watching Kupp, then it's the equivalent of having a cop with a radar gun pointed at you. You may drive that stretch of road for years without a ticket, but suddenly there's a cop with a radar gun clocking you going 70 in a 55, and you are done.
Then maybe it should have been obvious that the Bengals were going to throw to whoever Jalen Ramsey covered, and they could have called one or two of the times that Ramsey holds, because he does it all the time. (I am not a Bengals fan and have no grapes that are sour.)
They already took care of that when Ramsey got yanked to the ground by the facemask on that TD just after halftime.
That 3rd down tackle by Donald for no gain should go into his HoF video montage. He reached through two Bengals offensive linemen … with one arm. Normal mortals have said arm break by running back pinning arm backwards. Not Donald. Turned it into one armed tackle for no gain.
Am I crazy, or did the Rams get a very favorable spot there? Looked like he made more forward progress to me than he was given credit for.
The sequence leading up to the Rams go-ahead TD felt like we were just going to see do-over's till the Rams scored. And it did seem like the refs got worse as the game went on. I think these two teams were pretty evenly matched so it's not like the game was thrown but JeezumChristmas...
The NFL's (and sports in general) officiating issue is there are ever more protections in place for the offense to goose the scoring + ever increasing player speed + everyone in America is watching on a 65" HD 4k LCD Soundsystem Google Smart OLED with THX Dolby Atmos in their basement so we can see the detail of every synapse firing.
Back when we were all 30' away from our 21" Zenith, you got one grainy replay at half-speed and your nephews Stu and Stevie took turns holding the antenna, these things were a bit less certain.
Two evenly matched erratic teams getting hot at the finish. Ok. Maybe Rams were sort of expected, after picking up Von Miller & OBJ mid-late season. Candidly, I know OBJ got hurt, but just HOW did Rams become so offensively hapless in Q3/Q4? OBJ wasn’t the center of their seasons offense … ever. Can someone explain what defensive adj. Bengals made?
OBJ was I think the focus of the game plan for the Rams if the Bengals swarmed the side of the field with Kupp on it. The Rams love to run a lot of 3x1 sets with Kupp and two other targets (usually another receiver and a tight end) on one side and OBJ on the other. In a straight cover two type shell, that overloads the side with multiple receivers and those choice routes where Kupp reads the defense and adjusts to their leverage are devastating. The answer is to bracket Kupp shifting another defender to that side, but then the counter to that for the Rams is to have OBJ one on one in the intermediate level beneath the safety over the top. You have to have a QB with a big arm to pull that off, and a QB willing to stand in the pocket an extra tick or two, but Stafford meets the bill on both counts. (Mayfield, not so much.)
The Rams simply didn't have another receiver capable of effecting the defense on the backside of the play nearly as much, and so the Bengals could bracket Kupp more readily without being punished for it.
Really awesome breakdown of what actually played out
Or … eliminate booth reviews entirely. Go back to famous (or infamous) plays. Keeps game moving. And in-game speed (without booths) keeps field refs from developing too fat a finger. Let’s be honest; booth reviews and “replay-to-get-calls-right” is another one of America’s misguided & broken attempts to ‘legalize’ all facets of life. In this case, plays IN A GAME played by THE HUMAN ANIMAL. Hard to find a more ludicrous ‘need’.
WTF are you blathering about?
And it wasn’t the first time he lined up offsides and it wasn’t called.
I liked the No calls all game so I’m okay with it but the phantom holding call on third and goal leaves a real bad taste in my mouth. It just seemed like that typical NFL Big Market team call that tends to swing big games.
OBJ was brought into an old Browns regime and never wanted to be there. I completely get it.
But that's now two franchises that have moved on from him and his current team allows him to be the complimentary player he is now destined to be. He got a ring because he was motivated and in the right spot. He has his daddy to thanks!
The NFL loves controversary. This game was good, but will be talked about forever because of the mistakes. They never have to define anything, because as you say, the game moves too fast.
Cheers.
Football should have two refs on the field to place the ball down, throw flags, and keep the peace. But every decision they make should be fed to them by other refs who are watching the live action on a camera. We have enough cameras. We don’t need “replay.” We just need the live refs to use technology to better make the correct calls in the moment.
The downside of this is that, if they start calling all penalties to the letter of the law, it will just be endless penalties. I guess players will have to adjust, but I don't think the game really works if they call everything with no discretion.
Sure, but they would use discretion to decide when it’s egregious enough to call.
No system is perfect. But at least in this system, the TV viewers wouldn’t be at a decided advantage over the refs like we are today.
Agree with this 100%. It would take less than five seconds to flag a play like the Higgins facemask or the Rams false start by a “booth ref.”
Here would be the keys to making it work: 1) the refs on the field understand the booth ref has final say and they need to be trained to follow their instructions as quickly as possible.
2) booth ref needs to understand situation and return calls immediately unless there is a natural break in the game—time out, turnover, TD, etc.
It wouldn’t be perfect, but if you got really good booth refs and treated it like a full-time job so they could practice/train it be a *huge* improvement, imo.
Correct, the field refs just do whatever the booth refs say. But my point is there’s only 2 refs on field and maybe 6 different booth refs. Each booth ref is watching their specific assignment. Same as they do today, except they are watching from a much better vantage point via overhead camera. How do you call holding when you are dodging crossing routes? Any booth ref could immediately buzz field ref to throw flag, signal incomplete, whatever. No replay. It would take some practice, but it could be much better than today.
This is actually more or less my answer to MLB replay as well: no challenges and no delays: if 2-3 TV umps don't see reason to overturn the call on the field before the next pitch is thrown (which is to say, 22 minutes), then the call on the field stands.
You mentioned that obvious false start, but to me it looked like there were obvious false starts the entire game on both teams. It looked like the tackles were always dropping back before the snap on pass plays. It was weird.
Agree. The play everyone points to in the last couple of minutes just looked like the center was off a half-beat. All four other linemen moved a split second before the snap.
I saw that too and thought I must be imagining it.
I enjoyed the synchronized dick-grabbing team.