I Feel a bad moon a-risin.’
Sooner or later — and we’re overdue — the winner of the NFL championship is going to be determined by some systemic, non-football absurdity, some ridiculous, unintended and irreversible use of things such as TV timeouts and the runaway madness that is the “instant” replay rule.
The last time the Giants and Patriots played in the Super Bowl, the combination of the two — a TV timeout and the never-thought-of-that application of the replay rule — came awfully close to making a winner out the loser, a loser of the winner and a farce of the NFL’s premiere event.
Sherman, set the Way-Back Machine to the evening of Feb. 3, 2008, Glendale, Arizona. Early in the third quarter, the Patriots, up 7-3 and with a fourth-and-two from the Giants’ 44, punted. The Giants took over on their 14. Got that part?
With a change of possession, FOX then cut to commercials.
It was during this commercial time that the Patriots’ coaching staff was presented with the extended opportunity to look long and hard. And someone in the Patriots’ upstairs coaching booth got hooked on a feeling. Yep, there it was!
Many yards from the line of scrimmage, Giants linebacker Chase Blackburn was seen running off the field, to his sideline. But he appeared to have landed only one of his feet off the field before the snap.
When FOX returned from commercials, Bill Belichick threw his challenge flag, claiming the Giants were guilty of too many men on the field. Referee Mike Carey then inspected video until he came upon the itsy-bitsy, freeze-framed evidence — shot from way up high — of Blackburn’s departure. Again, Blackburn was nowhere near the play and had nothing to do with the play.
Still, based on the evidence and the tenets of the ill-conceived rule, Carey likely made the right call: Five-yard penalty, first down Patriots at the Giants’ 39.
Turned out the Patriots didn’t score on that extended possession. A third-down sack of Tom Brady followed by an incomplete pass returned the ball to the Giants on downs.
But this wildly unintended use/misuse of both a TV timeout and the foresight-starved replay rule came close to creating a scandal as the most significant “play” of the Super Bowl!
Put it this way: If it was the NFL’s intention to apply TV timeouts and the replay rule in such a manner, there wouldn’t be a replay rule, would there? And yet there it was, ready and able to make a lasting, self-inflicted joke of a Super Bowl.
And nothing has changed. Will this be the night when something that has nothing at all to do with football — microscopic, irrelevant minutiae — determines the winner? It’s just a matter of time, maybe this time.
Toomer candid about Eli’s slow growth with Shockey
Interesting chat Amani Toomer had with NBC’s Mike Florio on NBC Sports Network’s (nee Versus) “SportsTalk” on Wednesday. Toomer theorized that Eli Manning’s growth as a pro was delayed by the omnipresence of me-firsters, specifically tight end Jeremy Shockey.
“I think when Eli first came in, he wanted to be very respectful of the older players, and most of us understood that and appreciated that about him,” Toomer said.
“But there were some players on our team, namely Jeremy Shockey … he tried to take advantage of a young, struggling QB. … He’d come into the huddle and always pull on him. He’d always try to make him not to be able to go through his reads because he’d say, ‘Hey, hey, I’m open.’
“And those are things that a young QB can’t really handle. And there’s no question in my mind that the reason why after Shockey, in 2007, got injured, Eli’s play went up because he didn’t have that distraction in the huddle.”
* The frustrating thing about Jon Gruden is that his X’s and O’s Super Bowl talk on ESPN last week was the most insightful and applicable of anything we bumped into the last two weeks.
For example, Gruden said that when most teams go into a shotgun it’s preface to a pass, thus defenses are conditioned to quickly spread their defensive ends to maximize the pass rush.
But the Patriots, Gruden explained, have been running off the shotgun, and for big gains — including those by tight end Aaron Hernandez — thus there’s no “smart” or preferred way to defend when Tom Brady drops back prior to the snap.
Great stuff. A trip to school!
Yet, week after week, Gruden shows up on “Monday Night Football” telecasts eager to unload, and endlessly, a pile of contradictory nonsense and analysis that defies what we see. It’s crazy.
He could be twice as good if he said half as much!
Ladies get best of Au$$ie
About those Australian Open finals … Reader Mike DeGregorio writes to ask what gives:
“So the women’s final [Victoria Azarenka over Maria Sharapova] was 15 games, two sets, 82 minutes. The men’s final [Novack Djokovic over Rafael Nadal] was 55 games, five sets and seven minutes short of six hours.
“Yet, the men’s and women’s finalists get the same prize money.”
Well, Mike, it’s a lot like alimony …
And reader Michael Catarevas suggests that the six-hour men’s final would have lasted about three hours had Djokovic not bounced the ball so many times (once, I counted 20 times) before he served.
* Through the NFL Network, the NFL has gifted itself five more Thursday night games, starting in Week 2 next season, for a total of 13. Yep, more work/school night games, fewer Sunday afternoon games. Enjoy, season-ticket holders! Remember what Roger Goodell says, “PSLs are good investments,” and “It’s all about the fans!” See ya on craigslist!
Those who plan to invest time in NBC’s Super Bowl pregame can expect it to be littered with features and interviews that are nothing better than NBC promos, a lot like what NBC has done to local news, the “Today Show” and the Thanksgiving Day Parade.
The No. 1 Play of the Day on Wednesday morning’s “SportsCenter” was a breakaway slam by a Michigan State player against Illinois the previous night. ESPN’s sense of sport is so shallow that it didn’t even show the pass that led to the breakaway.