Primetime Embarrassment Elevates Crisis, The NFL's officiating lockout is now entering its fourth regular-season week, and like most high-stakes disputes about money, the argument comes down to simple math.
On paper, the owners are winning, and that's a major leverage point. Though the outcry and indignation over the substandard performance of the replacement officials has intensified, the games are still being played, and fans are still buying tickets and jerseys and watching on television.
If you subscribe to the theory that the only bad publicity is an obituary – and that the bottom line is some sort of holy covenant – you undoubtedly believe the owners should tune out the noise and press their advantage until the locked-out officials cave and accept a contract to the NFL's liking.
This may, in fact, be the league's strategy, and it is well within the owners' rights to pursue it. Yet given that I believe in neither of the aforementioned theories as absolute principles, and because part of my role as a columnist who covers the NFL is to stick up for those helplessly relegated to the sideline as this staredown rages on (hint: YOU), I'm going to suggest an alternative approach.
First, let me offer some Bill Clinton-style arithmetic: Four timeouts, two extra challenges.
That's what 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh received in the final minutes of San Francisco's 24-13 defeat to the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday, a gift from the football gods made possible by a) Harbaugh's forcefully persuasive personality; and b) the replacement referee's utter ignorance of the rules, something the official in question later admitted.
Talk about fuzzy math: Despite having just called his third and final timeout, Harbaugh was allowed to challenge a play on which his former Stanford running back, Toby Gerhart, was ruled down by contact. The official erroneously allowed the play to be reviewed, and after it was ruled that Gerhart had fumbled and the 49ers had recovered, gave Harbaugh his timeout back.
That timeout came in handy a bit later when the Vikes, having regained possession, handed the ball to Gerhart again, and he fumbled again, and Harbaugh challenged the ruling that the Vikes had recovered. This time, alas, he was unsuccessful. I'm sure the coach's next move would have been to ask for more time on the clock, or for more points. In fairness, why wouldn't he?
Fortunately, that regrettable bit of cluelessness didn't unjustly cost the Vikings a victory. The league has been lucky that, during the first three weeks of the season, there has not been an Ed Hochuli-in-Denver-style butchered call that altered the outcome of a game.
Yet this is not to say that there haven't been numerous instances of bang-your-fist-against-your-head officiating that have tormented fans across the country, not to mention gamblers and fantasy-football players. Sunday was a bad day for those insisting that life under the replacement refs represents business as usual, and we know which way the perception is trending.
On paper, the owners are winning, and that's a major leverage point. Though the outcry and indignation over the substandard performance of the replacement officials has intensified, the games are still being played, and fans are still buying tickets and jerseys and watching on television.
If you subscribe to the theory that the only bad publicity is an obituary – and that the bottom line is some sort of holy covenant – you undoubtedly believe the owners should tune out the noise and press their advantage until the locked-out officials cave and accept a contract to the NFL's liking.
This may, in fact, be the league's strategy, and it is well within the owners' rights to pursue it. Yet given that I believe in neither of the aforementioned theories as absolute principles, and because part of my role as a columnist who covers the NFL is to stick up for those helplessly relegated to the sideline as this staredown rages on (hint: YOU), I'm going to suggest an alternative approach.
First, let me offer some Bill Clinton-style arithmetic: Four timeouts, two extra challenges.
That's what 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh received in the final minutes of San Francisco's 24-13 defeat to the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday, a gift from the football gods made possible by a) Harbaugh's forcefully persuasive personality; and b) the replacement referee's utter ignorance of the rules, something the official in question later admitted.
Talk about fuzzy math: Despite having just called his third and final timeout, Harbaugh was allowed to challenge a play on which his former Stanford running back, Toby Gerhart, was ruled down by contact. The official erroneously allowed the play to be reviewed, and after it was ruled that Gerhart had fumbled and the 49ers had recovered, gave Harbaugh his timeout back.
That timeout came in handy a bit later when the Vikes, having regained possession, handed the ball to Gerhart again, and he fumbled again, and Harbaugh challenged the ruling that the Vikes had recovered. This time, alas, he was unsuccessful. I'm sure the coach's next move would have been to ask for more time on the clock, or for more points. In fairness, why wouldn't he?
Fortunately, that regrettable bit of cluelessness didn't unjustly cost the Vikings a victory. The league has been lucky that, during the first three weeks of the season, there has not been an Ed Hochuli-in-Denver-style butchered call that altered the outcome of a game.
Yet this is not to say that there haven't been numerous instances of bang-your-fist-against-your-head officiating that have tormented fans across the country, not to mention gamblers and fantasy-football players. Sunday was a bad day for those insisting that life under the replacement refs represents business as usual, and we know which way the perception is trending.
Title: Primetime Embarrassment Elevates Crisis
Rating: 100% based on 99998 ratings. 5 user reviews.
Post by 8:44 PM
Rating: 100% based on 99998 ratings. 5 user reviews.
Post by 8:44 PM
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