Flag on the Play

I am first and foremost an NFL fan. I love the sport, the league, I love the way in which the commissioner strives to make the NFL classy and professional. I like the policy that has zero tolerance for drugs, bad behavior off the field and
how they encourage members of the NFL to be good citizens and volunteer and give back. But what I witnessed tonight watching the Saints vs. Vikings Championship game, is shameful. Sure the Vikings turned over the ball too much, so did the Saints. But the officiating and lack thereof was embarrassing to me as an NFL fan.

The game itself up to the second half was great. Excitement at every moment. Then the fumbles. More fumbles. More fumbles. Back and forth. It was pretty exciting. But at some point in the fourth quarter, things took a turn and all of a sudden the game had a different feeling. First off, for some reason, the NFL's rules on late hits were suspended temporarily for this game. Brett Favre was getting all but mugged and stripped of his wallet, after passes, handoffs and again and again. Where was his offensive line you ask? Well they were done with the play that's where. No one was protecting him because well there is a rule in the NFL that generally tries to protect quarterbacks from egregious or late hits. According to NFL.com the rule for protection of the passer is "No defensive player may run into a passer of a legal forward pass after the ball has left his hand (15 yards). The Referee must determine whether opponent had a reasonable chance to stop his momentum during an attempt to block the pass or tackle the passer while he still had the ball." and "No defensive player who has an unrestricted path to the quarterback may hit him flagrantly in the area of the knee(s) or below when approaching in any direction."

Obviously neither of these rules was consistently enforced on at least 3 plays that I saw with my untrained eyes, but the montage of Brett Favre being knocked around like a rag doll was proof enough for anyone. This rule apparently only applies to Tom Brady or Carson Palmer apparently. I mean did anyone see Brett Favre after the game?

Next is the bogus pass interference call that was called when Brees tossed it out of bounds as he was getting pressure from the Vikings Defense. NFL.com states; "It is pass interference by either team when any player movement beyond the line of scrimmage significantly hinders the progress
of an eligible player of such player's opportunity to catch the ball." The receiver basically turned around tripped over his own feet and did a colossal flop for the pass interference call, practically shoring up his Oscar nomination. This is hardly significant, if anything his shoe may have scuffed the other player's shoe.

Then we get to the real arguments. The forward progress play. The Vikings are going for the 1st down and the guy jumps what looks like 10 feet in the air over everyone launching him in the air only to be knocked back by two defenders. From the view we were shown, we can see the ball clearly not in his possession while he is at the peak of his forward progress and he recovers it when he lands in the pile.

The angle we are shown distorts the correct view of where he was in his forward progress but to me, after watching it over and over again, I am not convinced that this was a first down and I don't see how any ref could see indisputable evidence that it was by review or standing in front of him. The only rule on NFL.com that explains measurement is the forward most point of the ball is used for measuring.

How can you measure a plane being crossed in mid-air? When he came down he was 1-2 yards from the 1st down line. Had this been the place where they were forced to give the ball back to Vikings, they may have won the game. But if that wasn't enough the most frustrating play of the game for me, was the catch that was "allegedly" made by Robert Meachem. I watched it over and over again from whatever views that they showed me, I have to believe that there were alternate views that us the viewers were not shown or the referee's who reviewed this tape have a severe vision deficit, they have been paid off, or they are clearly unaware of what possession of a ball is in the game of football. At no point did I see his hand underneath the football, he bobbles it, and then he is pinning it to his body as it lays on the ground.

In a room of 8 people, everyone was in agreement; it was not a fair catch. But when the review came back, and ever so quickly this one did, it was in complete disagreement with what anyone expected it would be. I mean some of these plays were arguable, but to us, this play was not. It was the most arguable and the one we thought for sure would be overturned. I will go to my grave on this one, saying Meachem did not make this catch according to the rules of possession I have known the NFL to look for in the past 10 years that I have been watching football. But that's just me.

I watched it over and over again and now for some reason there is no longer up close footage available of this catch, or the lack thereof. On the highlights reel on news stations, NFL.com, they don't show the up close footage either. I find this suspicious, especially because of the
outrage I have seen from comments on the blogs about how fixed this game looked, how people have never seen such horrible officiating in a game before, how dirty the New Orleans Saints defense played this game and many say they lost respect for the Saints defense because of it. The officiating wasn't just horrible to the Vikings; I saw at least two calls that were flubbed going against the Saints also.

In closing, I will say I was rooting for Favre and the Vikings, but I wouldn't say I am a die-hard fan; I just like good football, good plays, respectable talent, big efforts and fair play. Although going into the game, I really had no hard feelings for the Saints, because Brees and Bush are from my Southern California teams having played for the Chargers and USC. I had a lot of respect for this team because they truly deserved to be there, unlike the Jets who just got hot in the end. But by the end of this game, I not only lost respect for New Orleans, but I lost a lot of respect for the credibility of the NFL as a whole. What is really going on out there? Are the number 1 and 2 seeds what the commissioner wanted to see? Well, if it is, he got his wish, but I tell you, the Colts just inherited a cheering section in almost all Viking fans tonight. No one should win that way, it's too bad for the Saints that they had to. But it mars the NFL's shiny image and if the Saints happen to win the trophy it may look a little tarnished to some.