And now for a new one: Rig Job of the Week for Week 16: Patriots-Dolphins???

That's what one enterprising NFL fan ("Tyson") told Brian Tuohy last week, and Brian put it on his NFL season page as "Week 16.5".

Patriots-Dolphins. Apparently, the NFL had the game over long before it really was.

Cross-reference Gregg Easterbrook at "Tuesday Morning Quarterback" for this past Tuesday (Dec. 27, 2011) on ESPN.com. (It's a fair piece down the page, but if you look for it, you'll find it right to the hot legs of the Patriot cheerleaders.)

Anyhow, this is what Easterbrook has to write about what appears to be the latest attempt of the league to manipulate the playoff picture, with my comments:

"What Did NFL Headquarters Know and When Did They Know It? Just after Tom Brady ran for a touchdown to make it New England 27, Miami 17 with three minutes remaining, the highlight flag posted on NFL.com said, "Brady puts the Patriots up for good." That was the official NFL word with three minutes showing on the clock! So maybe that "Patriots comeback" was not as spontaneous as assumed. Bill Belichick was behind this somehow."

For anyone who has not been to NFL.com on a game-Sunday: When a highlight-worthy play appears, the highlight will go into the score bar next to the game at which that highlight occurred. That's what the "highlight flag" spoken about is concerned.

So, in the day and age where the league has seen Tim Tebow run circles around teams in the final two minutes (Shyeah and right!!), the official site of the league wants to tell us that, after going down 17-0 in the first half, the game is over when the Patriots complete a 27-point run with 2:56 to go with that touchdown, and the Dolphins have all three timeouts and the two-minute warning.

But wait, it gets far, far better!!

Easterbrook again: "Scoring to pull within 27-24 with 1:51 remaining, Miami kicked away rather than onside kick. Yes, the Dolphins held three timeouts. But they were on the road, kicking away to one of the league's most proficient offenses; all New England needed was one first down to drill the clock. Needless to say, that's what happened. Miami had a better (though still long-shot) chance of victory had it onside kicked."

So, not only has the league all but declared the game over on their website, but the Dolphins abjectly refused, with THREE TIME OUTS, to do the one thing which would've given themselves the best chance to win the damnated game.

You effectively throw away your best chance to win the game (and, if it fails, it gives you effectively two chances -- the onside kick and that you do have to make the stop if the onside fails!!). And it's not going to matter where the ball is: If you don't make the stop, the game is freaking over in the first damned place!!

This is a 53-man roster with an interim head coach who might make seven figures, and you can't freaking figure out that?

Is it too much to believe that the league tampered this game, because to believe otherwise would lead to about the same conclusion Easterbrook did:

"But seeking victory is not always first in a coach's mind. Interim head coach Todd Bowles would have known that if he ordered a deep kick, the Dolphins would all but surely lose -- but they would lose only 27-24. The league grapevine would say, "Hey, the Dolphins went into New England in December and only lost by three," improving the odds that Bowles will convert his Miami interim status into the plum job at Miami or elsewhere. Had Bowles ordered an onside, maybe the Dolphins pull out a spectacular victory. But there's a better chance the Patriots would cover the kick and Belichick, known for going for the jugular, would order his offense to attack the end zone. Then the game might have ended with the grapevine saying, "The Dolphins had a 17-point lead in New England and ended up losing by 10, Todd Bowles doesn't know what he's doing." Consciously or subconsciously, Bowles made the decision that was good for his career rather than the one that was good for his team. Most NFL coaches would have done the same, placing their résumés first."

And if you honestly believe that, he has no place in a professional sports league -- nor does any other such coach who does the same thing.

But then, one must ask the question about the famous Herm Edwards line:

DO YOU PLAY TO WIN THE GAME?

If it is all about an audition to be a head coach, then it's the same as any other business decision -- and, as I've said before about professional sports, in what business is there as many arbitrary variables as a fair and non-fixed contest would bring?

From footballlocks.com, one more gem on this one: New England was a seven-point favorite.