January 24, 2019
UPON FURTHER REVIEW
Please see Scott’s and Dennis’ columns below for their assessment.
SANTS, LSU AND MUCH MORE
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THE WIZARDRY OF OS
Assistant Basketball Coach and Head Swimming Coach at Central High
For those that are young Saints fans or somehow not a Saints fan but still reading these words, I will try to explain why the loss Sunday was much worse than one missed call… at least for me. Before I start, I must recognize that I didn’t experience the worst years of being a Saints fan.
As for me, my earliest memories of watching the Saints were in 1982 and 1983 when I was 6 and 7 years old. The Saints were average under Bum Phillips (the Aints were in the 70s). In 1983, the Saints were 8-7 and had a chance at their first winning season and playoff berth. With 6 seconds left, Mike Lansford, the barefoot kicker for the Rams, made a 42 yard field goal to win the game 26-24 (notice the symmetry to recent events).
The Saints organization started to turn things around in 1986 thanks to Jim Finks and the closing of the USFL. In 1987, the Saints had their first winning season and made the playoffs. The season was marred by the players strike, though. That season was when I learned that great accomplishments for the Saints would always come with some negative event. In their first playoff experience, the Saints were crushed at home 44-10 by Minnesota. A game where the Vikings’ Hassan Jones caught a Hail Mary at the end of the first half.
Everyone experiences poor judgement calls. In 1989, Jerry Rice caught a long pass, but fumbled before he crossed the goal line. Rice knew he did it and reacted by punching a Saints banner hanging on the wall. Despite Rice’s reaction and the obvious mistake, the play was ruled a touchdown. Later in the same game, John Taylor had a long pass knocked out of his hands before his feet hit the ground. Nevertheless, it was ruled a touchdown as well, and the Saints lost 24-20. Before you check Google, there was instant replay in 1989.
Every team is on the wrong side of epic performances. Also in 1989, the Saints surrendered a NFL record 336 receiving yards to Flipper Anderson. You would think the Saints were blown out. Nope. The Rams had to comeback to force overtime and won 20-17 on a field goal (lightning does strike the same place more than once).
At some point, franchises will have bad owners or management decisions. Hiring Mike Ditka and allowing him to trade the whole draft for Ricky Williams set the organization back three years.
Certainly, the Saints are not the only team in the playoffs to be victimized by game ending miraculous plays. The Immaculate Reception and Miracle in Minnesota happen from time to time.
All of that is relatable to any team. Here is what I can’t get past.
How many teams have had two years in the middle of their heydey ripped away by the commissioner after winning a Super Bowl? That is what Goodell did with his outrageous penalties after the Saints won the Super Bowl. He did it to protect the league from the lawsuits that were coming because of player safety. In the name of player safety, Goodell sacrificed the Saints.
In the following years, new terms such as targeting and defenseless players have been introduced in the name of player safety. In college football, where over 50 games are played on a given weekend, every play is reviewed to see if there was targeting. If the officials on the field miss it, the booth can catch it. The consequence is the most severe to a competitor as those caught targeting are disqualified from competition.
This year, it felt as though LSU was on the wrong side of the interpretation of the rules on numerous occasions. I think the NCAA should think about a less severe punishment. But, they are certainly exercising caution on the side of safety.
Meanwhile, in the NFL, targeting is just a 15 yard penalty and is only called by those on the field. What has been the result? Alvin Kamara is blatantly targeted in the Dallas game. No penalty. Jaylon Smith was fined $26,000. Smith’s contract is worth 6.5 million over 4 years.
Now let’s look at the pass to Tommylee Lewis. That was pass interference. Many have said it is a judgement call. If that is a judgement call, then so is whether a player steps out of bounds. When a player makes no play on the ball and hits a receiver a full second before the ball get there, it is not a judgement call. In basketball, we call it an intentional or flagrant foul. On that point, intentional or flagrant fouls can be reviewed in basketball. I can’t remember the last time an intentional or flagrant foul was missed in basketball.
Furthemore, Sunday’s play was targeting of a defenseless player. In the name of player safety, how can the NFL in all it billions of dollars not have an official reviewing every play like college football? The NFL should fine the Rams player, but if they do, keep in mind that player and his teammates will receive another $59,000 at least for playing in the Super Bowl.
There has been speculation the official said the ball was tipped nullifying pass interference. That official should never see if the ball is tipped. The other officials would have to tell him that. It is the same reason the head official’s comment after the game was he didn’t see the play because his responsibility was to watch the quarterback and lineman instead of the ball in the air.
On that note, how ridiculous is it that the NFL makes an official available for comment after the game, and that official has no knowledge of the only play anyone wants to talk about? Shouldn’t he be shown a 5 second replay before he talks to reporters? Shouldn’t he have a debriefing with his team of officials so he can answer the question? He serves no purpose if he has no knowledge of the play.
I am already out of patience for any talk about how the Saints had chances early in the game and therefore only have themselves to blame. Or how Payton called the wrong plays at some point in the game. The same people praised Payton for the fake punt against the Eagles. Earlier in the game he drew the Rams offsides on 4th down leading to a touchdown. The Saints beat the Giants and Ravens on the road because of similar decisions. When you call plays in football and basketball or pitches in baseball you don’t have knowledge of how the play or pitch will be executed before hand. Furthermore, you aren’t making your decision with the knowledge that a mistake will be made in the officiating of the game.
Nevertheless, I understand that players and coaches need to think that way and control what they can control. The Saints did have the ball first in overtime. But, that is not a reasonable stance for anyone on the outside to take. If the Saints are to control what they can control them the NFL and the officials are responsible for controlling what they can control. This game was for the NFC Championship between two great teams with great coaches. Of course there are going to be mistakes, and missed chances.
Todd Gurley dropped two passes. The Rams had to settle for a field goal when they had first and goal from the two yard line. If Zurlein’s 57 field goal that split the uprights had been ruled, “NO GOOD”, and the Saints gained one first down then kicked the winning field goal, no reasonable person say, “Well the Rams had their chances. They should have done better during the game.”
That field goal and the pass interference/targeting were equally as obvious. The Rams deserved to have the field goal ruled as good with two officials in position to make the call, and replay to correct the mistake if they missed what millions of people saw with their eyes. If the field goal ruling had been missed, the replay booth would have caught the mistake. Of course, that mistake would never be made on such an obvious play.
Two more quick rebuttals of what I have tried to avoid hearing, but cannot.
The interference/targeting is not a controversial call. It isn’t controversial when the league admits the mistake 20 minutes after the game and the player who commits the violation said he did it purposefully and expected a penalty. Look up the word controversy if you don’t understand what I am saying.
Rams fans and others can stop trying to compare the missed call (missed, not controversial) to other missed calls during the game. Throughout every game there are calls to be debated. But there are so many variables, there is no way to tell how the game would play out if the calls went a different way. That is what distinguishes a play at the end. There is no mystery. Similar to the LSU and Texas A&M game, several decisions by the officials would have ended the game. A play in the 3rd quarter doesn’t do that.
To be completely fair, I still think the Rams would have had a chance with 15 seconds and no timeouts if the correct call had been made. I am not willing to guarantee victory with 15 seconds left, and every Saints fan that watches year after year would agree with me.
Being a Saints fan since 1983, I have watched my last NFL game for this season. If you choose, enjoy the Super Bowl. I am not interested.
For some readers, going down the rabbit hole I just dragged you down was not what you were looking to read. Sorry. Since you got this far, I will give you two thoughts not related to the awful ending of the game.
First, NFL coaches have become WAY too reliant on the communication devices. College and high school teams use signs and wrist bands. NFL coaches should look into being more prepared for communication issues.
Second and last, the Saints coaches and players deserve more credit than people recognize. The Saints had to play over 75% of the game with a tight end that was on the practice squad all year. The only way he can go out and execute plays is over the course of the season he is being coached and taking the approach personally that his time could come at any point.
People don’t recognize and understand how much time, effort, and organization goes into producing the type of season the Saints had this year. The scouting to recognize Keith Kirkwood’s talents and bring him on the team. The coaching to have Garrett Griffin ready for the only game action he saw all year. You get the idea.
It is a shame that some mistakes are unforgettable. I understand that every fan has their own terrible memories of certain games and seasons supporting their teams. After the last two years, I am certainly ready to be on the positive side of “breaks” that come with competition. Who Dat!
HEY REF
I know many of my readers out there are waiting to see/read exactly what “HEY REF” has to say about the most talked about happening in the sporting world since last week. I won’t disappoint those either that expect me to give all types of reasons or excuses to the “NO CALL” in last week’s NFC Championship between the LA Rams and New Orleans Saints. But first let me set the record straight and say from the get-go that there isn’t any collusion or conspiracy in keeping the Saints out of Super Bowl LIII.
Simply stated and on the record “HEY REF” is disgusted and sick that the guys in stripes BLEW THE PLAY! And anyone that’s read my words of wisdom in this column for any amount of time in the last eight years knows only facts make it in print. For anyone reading my column for the first time, if there are any, I’ve explained exactly what an official’s one and ONLY job is. Simply we as officials are charged to insure no player(s) go outside the intent of the rules.
How simple can I explain it? Too many times we’ll have a new official that’ll throw his flag so many times that he’s got to replace it before the next game. It’s as if they want to impress the other members of the crew with how well they know the rules because he’s whipping that gold rag out so many times you wonder how you forgot so many rules. I know some out there won’t understand my description of an official’s job because it can’t be that simple. Believe me that is the only reason for us being on the field.
Again, “HEY REF” has always said he’ll take an official that can take book sense and turn it into common sense any day of the week. You can know each and every rule backwards and forwards but you must know and understand how the action by certain players did cause said player an advantage by going outside of the intent of the rule. Again we aren’t out there to penalize each instance because everybody has heard us say that we can call holding on every play. In fact at a camp a couple years back there was a coach that admitted he teaches his team to hold on every play because as he sees it “y’all will get tired of calling holding soon or later”.
I love all the announcers on sport’s TV and Radio shows. They are cramming the airwaves with their solutions to this “no-call” problem. Some are so ridiculous like ESPN’s Steve Smith when he said the rules should be changed so that in critical situations a coach/team can challenge an official’s judgement call. He stated that a call in the first half isn’t critical and he’d like to see the rule enforced only in the second half. Hint to ESPN and Mr. Smith, EVERY call no matter when it’s made is critical to the team that’s being penalized. Its stupidity like his that’ll ruin the gameif the NFL over reacts in trying to correct the wrong that was without a doubt handed out to the Saints.
The only true solution is for the officials covering that play to be fired and the crew suspended for at least half of the 2019 season. They’d also lose any and all playoff games for the entire 2019 season. The punishment needs to be severe because their actions were beyond belief in that after all the training the league requires of each official to miss a no-brainer like we saw last Sunday in the Dome.
Each official, by position is taught to concentrate on the action in their zone. And the saying goes something like “don’t fish in another official’s pond”. That means they don’t other officials calling a foul in another part of the field. The train of thought is if you do call something out of your zone then you mustn’t be watching your zone so automatically you’re at fault even if you are correct.
Here’s a perfect example of “fishing in someone else’s pond” that happened in a game I worked. It was on a Friday night and I’m working my Line Judge position with a new crew. One of the deep officials was one of those guys that laughed all night and never got serious about the job we expected of him. So as a receiver went deep he dodged a defender and stepped out of bounds then came back in bounds to catch a pass of over twenty yards. I looked over at him and he wasn’t looking so I threw my flag. Yes, I know it wasn’t the “right” thing to do but when a guy has a don’t give a @#%^$&*^ attitude the rest of the crew has to pick up for his slacking all night. I was wrong and paid a hefty price but I felt it was the right thing to do since I was the only official that saw the complete play.
And with that play in mind I was hoping somebody in the crew last Sunday would’ve stood up and tossed a flag simply because the defender did in fact commit not only pass interference but helmet to helmet contact that should’ve caused him to be tossed out of the game. But you can’t blame just one official in this situation, the whole crew is at fault for not doing the right thing. And that’s where “HEY REF” stands. Sometime you don’t friends by doing the right thing and if I’d been on the floor of the Superdome then the Saints would be headed to the Super Bowl. Yes, I’d be looking for another job as the NFL wouldn’t hesitate to fire me. By no stretch of the imagination can the NFL afford to keep officials that aren’t ready to do the right thing!
Till next week… …
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