September 17, 2007
NFL Rule Change
In a long and happy life, I don't think I had spent a moment feeling sorry for Oakland Raiders' fans. Until yesterday.
I was very happy with the Broncos win. Talk about pulling it out of the fire, we had all just watched the winning, 52-yard field goal sail through the uprights.
For those who did not see the game, Oakland -- it grieves me to say this -- performed a gritty and classy comeback from a three score deficit to tie the game. They then marched down in an impressive OT drive, and Janikowski kicked a 52 yarder.
But Coach Shanahan had called time right before the snap. The announcer pointed out that they can signal their intent to do this and the official waited in front of the bench for the signal. The second attempt hit the upright and my illustrious Broncs prevailed.
But that is a poultry-excrement rule that should be revoked. That is an unsporting use of time out.
"I feel bad," Broncos safety John Lynch said. "But not really."Posted by John Kranz at September 17, 2007 10:28 AM
No way Hoss, they called time out before the ball was snapped, with the intention of icing the kicker. It worked. Life is good. Feel sorry for all the poor kids and old people that Republicans want to starve and freeze to death this winter, not the Oakland Raiders!
Posted by: sugarchuck at September 17, 2007 11:27 AMDamn, I was sooo ready to hit my "Flame his ass!" button.
Posted by: Perry Eidelbus at September 17, 2007 11:55 AMDid I do a Bronco post just to smoke out a SugarChuck comment? Am I that craven?
I dunno. The part that gets me is calling the official over to call it just as the center looked up. Nothing wrong with icing the kicker (though I think it's the second-most ineffectual move in pro sports*) but whistling right at the snap, I dunno...
*(The most ineffectual move in pro sports is taking a pitch on 3-0)
Posted by: jk at September 17, 2007 12:04 PMIcing the kicker worked yesterday! and rules is rules. If Oakland doesn't take advantage of that rule in similar situations they need a new coach.
Posted by: sugarchuck at September 17, 2007 12:13 PMRules is rules and Shanahan used rules and won. We're in perfect agreement. I'm suggesting it is a bad rule to provide a mechanism for a surreptitious time out. If the official goes to your bench to allow a fractional second timing of a time out, I'd think it sporting to tell the other team.
Icing as "make him think about how his kids will hate him if he misses this next kick" is legal, sporting, and ineffective. Icing as "make him kick it twice" got empirical proof yesterday, but seems on the edge. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the folks in Oakland decided they didn’t even like Coach Shanahan.
Posted by: jk at September 17, 2007 1:36 PMI also feel sorry for O.J. Simpson, who gets into so much trouble because he is black. Kind of sad.
Posted by: jk at September 17, 2007 1:38 PMThe NFL has a "rules committee" that considers this sort of thing during the off-season. I expect they'll talk about this next year.
What would you have the NFL do instead, JK?
- Disallow time-outs before field goals?
- Stipulate that they must be called before the opposing team breaks huddle, or the center touches the ball?
- Abolish the practice of second-by-second timing of a time-out call? What about that well known and well respected clock management technique?
It's already forbidden to call back-to-back time outs, so it's not quite a moral wasteland of rulemaking.
The rule is objective and avoidable. If the kicking team feels that their professional kicker needs additional rest before his second attempt they are free to call another time out of their own. What we saw yesterday is just the evolution of game management, spurred by intense competition. Glorious.
No, it's not "fair" but them's the breaks. Life ain't fair either.
Gads, JK, if I didn't know better I'd say yer a nannyist.
Posted by: johngalt at September 17, 2007 4:02 PMGood thing we all agree on politics and immigration.
My rule change would say that if the officials are going to wait in front of one team's bench for a time-out call, The other bench is notified. Transparency, baby, not regulation.
Posted by: jk at September 17, 2007 6:30 PMJust when I thought I was out, they drag me right back in. The rule is transparent now. The only surprise on the play came when it looked as if Shanahan had not called a time out, thus missing an opportunity to ice the most choke prone kicker in the NFL. Every time this comes up I think we should all pause and think about the children, or the obscene profits CEO's make, or the oil barrons, or drug companies, or Sean Penn. There are rules that need changin', but not this one on icing the kicker.
Posted by: Sugarchuck at September 17, 2007 7:19 PMI'm doing it for the children, sc, know that I am doing this for the children.
Posted by: jk at September 17, 2007 7:28 PMbaked beyond belief, but i was googling to see when it became legal for coaches to call time out, and came across this site. I had just posted something incredibly similar on Comcast.net college footbal forum about the florida gators coach trying the same thing against auburn. I even posted that deliberatly waiting to the last posible second was chickenstuff and shouldbe an unsportsmanlike conduct call, and that it was bad for our kids to see.
Posted by: f1fan at October 2, 2007 11:12 PM | What do you think? [11]