February 7, 2019
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THE WIZARDRY OF OS
Assistant Basketball Coach and Head Swimming Coach at Central High
If there are different “Spiderverses,” maybe I am in one of those. Maybe I was sent into another dimension when Marcus Williams was transferred from a solid human object into a ghostlike figure allowing the Minnesota Miracle.
In my new dimension, easy solutions are extremely difficult.
This week I read an article on on nola.com regarding possible rule changes to college football. In the article, Steve Shaw said, “The overtime process is really not broken. It’s just when you go beyond two it’s too much.” Yogi Berra would be jealous of this quote.
The overtime process is that you play on this tiny shortened field after playing a 60 minute game, essentially limiting ⅓ of the game (special teams), and putting the offense in a position to score without gaining a first down. The process is what leads to there being more than two overtimes. So if going past two is a bad idea, then the process that encourages multiple overtimes IS broken. But the solutions, are easy. Pick any or all of these three.
Easy solution #1: Start at midfield. Better yet, start with one team punting from it’s own 5 yard line.
Easy solution #2: Move the extra point back like the NFL.
Easy solution #3: Move the two point conversion back to the 5 yard line to take away the easy pick plays are that supposed to be illegal anyway.
In the altered dimension I am living, targeting has become more difficult than landing a person on the moon. The Devin White situation has been debated for months, and yet easy solutions are overlooked.
Easy solution #1: Clarify the rule. The language needs to be revised. One area in need of clarification is the “helmet-helmet” portion. Not all parts of the helmet are the same. The face mask sticks out farther than the other parts. If a player makes contact using his facemask it means he is using safe tackling technique, but in the case of Devin White, that is why he was called for targeting.
In the week following the game, the people in this world that make a living just by taking a position that is contrary to logic often pointed to the fact that it was targeting by the letter of the law (though even that wasn’t true since White’s hands made contact first). Nevertheless, that is why this fix is so easy. Fix the language and allow face mask to fask mask contact as long as the player isn’t launching himself to a defenseless player.
Easy solution #2: Have two different penalties like basketball has for the flagrant 1 and 2. Since it involves player safety, continue making the player sit out a portion of the game. For a targeting 1, the player sits out 10 offensive plays (it is a round number I chose). For targeting 2, the player is ejected.
If you read last week, you know my opinion on the NFL rule. It is hypocritical and an insult to every Saints fan and the entire organization that the NFL does not review every play for targeting. Calling it a easy solution is an insult to the word easy. It is plain obvious to a conscious human that the NFL should employ the same procedure college football already uses to help the officials on the field. It would take almost no effort on the part of the NFL.
Yet, nobody is talking about that aspect of the NFC Championship and is again why I must be in another dimension of reality. At first, I saw the play being described as controversial. WRONG! Then I have seen it described as a PI no call. WRONG AGAIN! It was a PI AND targeting no call.
Sean Payton has had his netflix and sugar time, while Roger Goodell has had his time to show no leadership. Now is time to fix the situation and I have rarely heard anyone have good idea. That is until, Drew Brees started doing interviews.
Easy solution #1: Courtesy of Drew Brees. Keep the team together. In the playoffs, the NFL uses “all-star” crews of officials. As I said the week after the game, the biggest problem I had was not that one official missed the call. Three officials missed the call. The fundamental problem with a call like this one is the people pretending as if there are not false safes and backup mechanisms already in place.
One official isn’t in charge of intentional grounding, holding, field goals, etc. There are 2-3 officials whose view of a play overlap. They don’t work on islands. They work as a team, and they have communication equipment to help them. The football teams that play in championship games are there because they have gained a level of trust and connectivity that bind them together in stressful environments. Teams of officials are the same way. The breakdown on the no-call was in the team of officials more than one person.
Easy solution #2: Duh! Targeting is always reviewable and happens on every play. There are already medical professionals watching every play for signs of concussions and mechanisms to get those players off the field. There are already replay officials.
If I am lucky, I will return to my normal “Spiderverse” and these changes will already be implemented. There is no place like home. Sorry for mixing movie references.
HEY REF
Some are calling Super Bowl LIII the Boring Bowl simply because everyone expected the high powered offense coming out of California to roll over the frozen kings from Boston. I didn’t get to watch much of the first three quarters and of the plays I did see they shocked me since for two weeks not a single football god/“expert” predicted a low scoring defensive battle. The over/under was 54 points on Sunday morning with New England a solid 2 ½ point favorite. So what went “wrong”?
Nothing as far as this “expert” could see since I had Brady and company an eleven point fave. In the early going New England did come out strong only to drive deep into LA territory before the Rams picked off Brady’s first pass which was a Super Bowl first for Tom. As I saw it if the Rams allowed Brady time to sit back and look over the field he’d pick ‘em apart. For most of what I saw the team from the land of fruit and nuts kept the Pats guessing in the first half.
But as we’ve seen many times New England’s head coach, Bill Belichick, made the adjustments he needed during halftime. But the coach on the opposite sideline is also one that’s able to make changes to give his team a shot at pulling the game out. And that’s got me wondering why Wade Phillips’ name hasn’t been mentioned more often because he kept Brady and his weapons silent for nearly 58 minutes.
He called a great game keeping New England to a lone field goal until the very end of the game. But as I wrote what I felt would be the difference in this game finally showed itself, an offense that’ll run the same play but disguise it so well defenses have a very hard time in figuring out which way the attack will come.
New England had the Rams’ defense gasping for air as the final few minutes ticked away. It was “Brady Time” as he went to the guys that got ‘em to the Super Bowl. MVP Julian Edelman (My choice, too) took up where he left off in finishing with 141 yards on ten catches. He didn’t catch a single touchdown pass in the three playoff games but he proved just how valuable he is to his team’s continued Super Bowl appearances.
I feel the Rams played way over their collective heads simply because they didn’t belong in the game. And if they had performed a miracle and beat the Patriots the game would always have an asterisk next to it in reminding everyone if it wasn’t for the incompetence of three officials working the title game that in fact New Orleans should’ve been in the game representing the National Conference. No need in re-hashing the “no call” it’s done, over but should never be forgotten.
When the owners meet in the spring without a doubt the number one topic has to be what to do with and handle gross incompetence in those judgement calls made by the crew of officials. As it is now and without any hesitation on my part the NFL has caused officials to be “gun shy” when making all judgement calls. Nobody wants to be made a fool but that’s the feeling of many officials so much so they feel damned if they do and damned if they don’t make a call.
Each and every time one of the NFL officials reaches for his yellow hanky in the back of his mind he wonders how that call will look in super, super, super slow motion. It’s just human nature wanting to look like you’ve made the right call no matter your line of employment.
One year I was lucky to be picked to help call an LSU scrimmage in Tiger Stadium. The SEC official I was assigned to told me what to expect and what I would be looking for during that part of the scrimmage. Basically he said I should look to see if either player hinders the other as they try to catch a pass. The very first snap on the very first play I was covering he jumped up and shouted at me “Hey, the game is in front of you, not in the stands”! I wasn’t aware that I’d looked up at the stands. He asked “Your first time”?
I didn’t need to answer; he knew I’d never been on the field in Tiger Stadium. His message has never left me as he explained; “in that very short amount of time” that it took for me to look up at the stands is when “you lost complete coverage”. As time and the years went by I began to understand just how quick you can lose concentration. And so it is for the NFL guys in just a very brief amount of time they can be made to look like a fool since there are at least six or seven cameras following the ball.
The “no call” exposed a weakness in the system that I have no answer for. Whatever the owners decide I just hope it keeps mistakes out of the games. It’s sad to think that the rules in place didn’t correct the wrong. But what’s even sadder is the NFL has a Commissioner that won’t enforce those rules that try to insure the team that should’ve won the game did exactly that.
Till next week…
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