A Simply Dumb Week of NFL Action
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Donovan McNabb has earned himself a good shot to be Simply Dumb’s Athlete of the Year by admitting he didn’t know the NFL’s rules regarding overtime.
His miscue loomed even larger when McNabb’s Philadelphia Eagles played to a sudden death overtime tie with the Cincinnati Bengals. The league only plays one OT to decide things while McNabb wanted to just keep playing. The Eagles are desperately fighting for a playoff berth. The Bengals, as usual, are fighting for nothing but the first pick in the NFL Draft.
McNabb’s coach Andy Reid leapt to his signal caller’s defense, no doubt because the prospect of a tie is something the coach and the QB might have discussed beforehand. Reid is now on the hot seat as much as McNabb is. Reid swears that McNabb wouldn’t have played any differently had he actually – ya know, known the rules of the game he gets paid millions to play.
Really, Andy? There is no difference between the drive you run in the first quarter of the game and the one you run when you’re about to tie one of the worst teams in football? Does the phrase “sense of urgency” have any meaning in the Eagle locker room? If that’s true, it really may be time to send both McNabb and Reid packing. Neither of them probably realizes they’re in trouble, though. We tried to reach Bengals superstar Chad Ocho Cinco for comment, but he was busy looking into celebrations for the touchdowns he used to score.
That bizarre scenario would have been more than enough to earn NFL Week 11 Simply Dumb honors. But the ending of another close game between Pittsburgh and San Diego has the world talking, and most aren’t saying anything good.
That is, unless you had money on the Chargers losing by less than 4 points. For reasons that may forever be unknown, a fumble recovery for a Troy Polamalu touchdown got overturned. The referees confabbed, instant replayed it and somehow still got the controversial call wrong.
Refs claimed one of the laterals San Diego threw before the fumble was an illegal forward pass. This negated the Steeler TD and took seven points off the board. Gamblers lost hundreds of millions. We’re not saying that was part of the refs’ decision like some NFL conspiracy theorists, it’s just funny to us. Replays showed the refs were thinking – we don’t know what they were thinking as the pass was pretty clearly backward. Which is, as you may have heard, the complete opposite of backward. It’s also a shame because the ruling negated the only really exciting play in an 11-10 snoozer.
The NFL released a statement admitting the refs blew the call. It’s one of many calls the zebras have flubbed this year even with the benefit of instant replay. The league is looking at rules changes that may include a second instant replay for controversial calls. Who other than beer companies advertising during the commercial breaks wants another way to slow down an NFL game? What would enable the refs to magically see something different the third time they look at an important play?
“The initial ruling and subsequent replay were just for funsies, y’all. We’re going to quit drinking and get serious about the call now, we swear. And Hochuli, turn your hat around! No more tomfoolery.”
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