The NFL: The Continuing Story of a Quack (Commissioner) Who's Gone To The Dogs

Another week, more NFL bullshit.

Biggest one this week was one the NFL admitted was a mistake.

Sunday night, nearing the end of the game, 2 minutes to go, Washington has the ball, driving on the Giants to try to tie the game, trailing 24-17.

Here's the controversy:


You see, clearly, that the ball is set short of the first down (there are some reports that, in fact, the play actually gained a couple of feet more than this, and it was easily a first down).

The linesman on the near side of the field at :03 - :04 believes so too and motions for the chains to be moved.

The referee is signalling third down.

Now, in any realistic event, the ball cannot be snapped, in any capacity, with this kind of confusion.  The league said, correctly, the game had to be stopped to clear the confusion.

As a result, and as the ESPN announcer correctly notes, Mike Shanahan calls a first-down pass play on what turns out to be third down.

It is broken up, the Redskins fail to make 4th down and a foot, and the Giants win 24-17.

So the league admits their error, but you have no recourse to correct it (neener neener neener).

So what does this mean?

Just like almost every other example of admitted bad calls on the part of the league, this was no accident.

The call was NOT a mistake -- in that it ensured the outcome the league openly wanted.

Don't believe me?  Here are some examples:

• The infamous debacle at Candlestick in the playoffs between the Giants and the 49ers.  Botched field-goal snap turns into a mess at the end, with an receiver (who, in fact, was lined up on the end of the field goal unit, and, hence, even with the number, ELIGIBLE) mugged in the attempt to recover the situation.  Result?  49ers win, 49er Empire happy, league happy with continued fellating of the 49er dynasty.  Error admitted, but nothing can be done.
• The Fail Mary.  Perhaps, knowing what we know now, this was the establishment of the dirty Seahags being pushed to high Heaven, even with a questionable coach and even more questionable practices behind the scenes (drugs, drugs, drugs...), etc. and so on and the Cult of the 12th Man and so forth...  But again, league admits error, but the result stands -- the result (for whatever reason -- be it to get the replacement refs out of there alive or the beginning of the Seahag Era/end of the Packer Era, etc.)
• Two errors admitted in a mid-November week last year -- one giving Denver a touchdown it shouldn't have gotten versus Carolina (and probably costing the then-Carolina special-teams coach his job), and a problem in the drawn game between San Francisco and St. Louis.
• The league, this week, admitted THREE officiating errors against the Tennessee Titans.  Their opponents?  The Indianapolis Colts.
• Super Bowl XL, and one of the worst-officiated games in history.  But the balance of the calls aided the Steelers in having hometown boy Jerome Bettis ride off into retirement with a ring.

And there are numerous others.

But, to a one, there's one thing in common.

When the NFL admits a mistake, it's not a mistake.  The error ensured the exact result the NFL wanted.

Keep this in mind.

So now, apparently, not being a big enough fan and bowing your life to football is a CAPITAL OFFENSE???

I always knew this whole Alabama-Auburn thing was fucked up long before this weekend, but what has transpired since that crazy field goal return has gotten this rivalry back up near the top of The Stupid.

Not only has the Alabama kicker (the regular one, who missed three other field goals in the game) been the subject of the now-obligatory death threats on Twitter...

But we have this story from Deadspin...

Michelle Shepherd was a 36 year-old Alabama fan.

I say "was" for a very specific reason.

She's DEAD.

And why?

28 year-old Adrian Briskey is in jail with $75,000 bond for shooting and killing Shepherd.

As many Alabamans did on Saturday, Briskey and Shepherd attended a party for the Iron Bowl.

After Auburn won, according to a conglomerate blog of three Alabama newspapers, Shepherd and her sister were talking about that they would have been more concerned had the Miami Heat lost -- in that Shepherd was more of a Miami Heat fan than a Crimson Tide fan.

Now, often this is said colloquially, but there's no joke here:  That act turned out to be a capital offense, as Briskey scuffled with Shepherd, both ended up on the ground, and Briskey pulled out a handgun and executed Shepherd.

For WHAT??  Not bowing your entire life, fortune, and sacred honor to Alabama football?

I mean, OK...  I can take issue with the Miami Heat and all, but parse this out for me...

After having it declared "they don't care about Alabama [football]", a bunch of people at the party block the sisters' exit.  No words are exchanged between Briskey and Shepherd.  When it's all said and done, Briskey shoots and kills Shepherd for not being a big enough Alabama fan and probably feeling homicidal over the loss.

We've hit full soccer hooligan here, ladies and gentlemen.  Wrong colors?  Get your ass kicked.  Don't swear fealty to the team?  DIE!!!

Paging Tommy Young, or Randy Anderson, or the Hebners...

The life of a referee is hard, we get it.

But one of the key things that helps make the script of pro wrestling work is a referee who is utterly blind, deaf, and//or dumb that anything can go on around him and it wouldn't matter.

Have we reached this point in US professional sports?

Sounds like we have.  Ask Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin.

 

Someone explain to me why not only was no flag thrown, but Tomlin wasn't penalized a Baltimore touchdown and then ejected from the sideline for that.

How is that different from the Jets coach a couple years back?  You can clearly see the returner almost having to stiff-arm Tomlin on the way through giving time for #28 to tackle him for the Steelers.

And then all the announcers start giggling over it like little schoolchildren once they realize (and it took a couple looks) how badly he got one over on the refs and the Ravens.

And THEN the erstwhile shill for the official meme league official that placates these kinds of controversies had the gall to say the following:

Now we find out that the referee for the game was Clete Blakeman, the same official who led the crew that "missed" the pass interference on the Panthers vs. the Patriots.

And there is why this kind of stuff happens.  You have competent officiating, it's harder to cover for what the league really wants to happen -- closer games, the "right teams and players" winning, etc. and so forth.

And it's not just the Neanderthal Felon League.

Shall we go back to earlier this week, and the Jason Kidd Experiment in how to get an extra time out...

Brooklyn Nets coach Jason Kidd has no time outs left against the Lakers.

All of a sudden, he spills his drink, forcing a stoppage.  And, under NBA rules, his team is allowed to gather around the assistant to draw up a play.

Doesn't work (LA wins 99-94), and he's fined $50,000 for the maneuver.

Are we at the point that enough people are wise that the referees in professional sports are either so incompetent or so crooked that:

a) they have no business out there, and
b) that all sense of Fair Play has gone out the window.

Turkeys of the Week: Week 12 Fine Blotter

• Detroit Lions:  Ndamukong Suh -- AGAIN.  THREE TIME LOSER this season..  This one was NOT for a hit, though.  $7,875 for a throat-slash.  That's almost $140,000 for Suh this year.  (The fine even drew a sigh from the nfl.com article.)
• Pittsburgh Steelers:  William Gay:  $15,750 for a hit to the facemask.
• Houston Texans: Antonio Smith:  Back in the blotter after his preseason suspension:  $15,750 for nailing Chad Henne in the head or neck.  TWO-TIME LOSER.
• Miami Dolphins:  Cameron Wake:  $15,750 for similar to Cam Newton.
• Chicago Bears:  Two $7,875 fines for an altercation vs. St. Louis.  Kyle Long got one.
• Chicago Bears:  And Tony Fiammetta got the other $7,875 fine.
• New Orleans Saints:  Cameron Jordan, $10,000 for roughing the passer.
• NOT FINED THIS WEEK, per the NFL.com article:  Aldon Smith, apparently kicking RGIII in the nuts is not fineable.  (OR he didn't kick him "down there"...)  And Chris Long of the Rams left the bench during the altercation in which the two Bears were fined.  Apparently, he didn't involve himself in said altercation. 

• And team fines:  Detroit, $7,875, Houston $15,750

And that appears to be all..  Ugh.

The Law of (Un?)Intended Consequences: Has Deadspin Just Destroyed The Baseball Hall of Fame?

I didn't think of this -- my anonymous friend who is a long-time baseball historian (and, hence, is following this story even closer than I am) posed me a very serious question tonight:

Has Deadspin, by their purchase of a Hall of Fame ballot, intentionally or otherwise destroyed the entire voting process for the Baseball Writers' Association of America with respect to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY?

Consider these two scenarios:

We now have a "going rate" (undisclosed, but a "going rate" nonetheless) for the purchase of a Hall of Fame vote.

Anyone who's been paying attention the last fifteen years knows that ESPN has been masturbating over getting all the steroid cheats their "proper place" in history. You've got to think that all the "dormant ballots" could be bought in the same manner that Deadspin has just bought theirs.

How about A-Roid?  He's definitely unscrupulous enough to buy his way in.

Blammo.  You just blew up the entire process.

Thanks, Deadspin, really.

Well, the inevitable has occured... England now has a soccer match-fixing scandal.

To the shock of almost nobody paying attention (read: everyone except Declan Hill, probably Brian Tuohy and myself), the biggest match-fixing scandal to hit the Football Association (the main soccer governing body in England) was reported today by The Guardian.

Six men, including at least three players and a former player-turned-agent who played in the EPL, have been arrested by a brand-new body in England, the National Crime Agency (basically, England's FBI).

Some notes:

• Secretly recorded conversations put a good price at fixing a lower-league match at about 50,000 pounds.  (To me, that sounds high for lower-level leagues.  That sounds to me about the price of compromising a low-level EPL player.)
• It is not believed (or, at the least, not admitted) that any EPL matches or sides are involved.  (*cough* If there's a match-fixing scandal, I want a look at Joey Barton when he was with Queens Park Rangers...  Just sayin'.)
• From the article:  "In recent years fears have been growing that gangs were targeting matches in the UK. This newspaper was approached by an undercover investigator with links to Fifa, who had been gathering evidence against suspected Asian match fixers offering to operate in Britain."  Declan Hill, is that you?  I mean, this whole thing reeks of Dan Tan the Man, as it were.
• "During a series of undercover meetings in Manchester this month, which were covertly recorded, one of the fixers claimed he could rig games and that potential gamblers would make hundreds of thousands of pounds by using the inside information on Asian-based betting websites.  The fixer, from Singapore, also alleged that he controlled teams in other European countries and could buy foreign referees to secure results." Yep, appears to be tied to Dan Tan. 
• You could even grease the skids for an extra 5,000 pounds for a player (compromised) to get an early yellow card as a "tell" that the match was rigged.
• Often, the fixer would have action on the match's total -- the number of goals scored in a match.  This is why, in Las Vegas, you will basically never see a soccer match total as an over-under proposition.  Any action at all is one side, the other, or a draw.
• Apparently, the man involved as the head of this operation was rumored to be a "Wilson Raj Perumal".  Long invested in the seedy riggings of Asian matches, but living in London, he's been tied to match fixings in Finland (for which he did time), Hungary (for which he is effectively being held), and matches in Asia involving Zimbabwean teams, among others.

It will be interesting to see where this leads.  Keep an eye on Declan Hill on this one.

Well, It's Official: Another Way Deadspin Has Either Jumped The Shark or Boned The Fish...

Deadspin has succeeded in something that I'm not exactly crazy about.

They have actually purchased the Baseball Hall of Fame vote of a(n anonymous) BBWAA member and will vote for whomever on the ballot gets enough support from the readership of Deadspin.

File that under "Wrong Under So Many Levels"...