In this post-Tim Donaghy world, anything seems possible. And not in a good way. If a highly rated NBA referee like Donaghy can be tied to organized crime and be found guilty of betting on games he officiated, anything seems possible. Anything ugly.
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| Somehow, Leigh Bodden was penalized for pass interference here. (US Presswire) |
And I'm here for you, fans of the Chicago Bears. Tell me all about the unbelievable -- as in, I literally cannot believe it -- clock delay that allowed the Falcons to rally for a last-second field goal that beat your team.
And I'm even here for you, fans of the St. Louis Rams. Your team won Sunday, but an unnecessary officiating call in the final minute made that victory against the Redskins more difficult than it should have been.
Was the fix in at any of those three games? I have no idea, which means in plain English that I'm making no accusations.
But no ducking the obvious, either. There is no avoiding the reality of this post-Tim Donaghy world, a reality that says our games aren't always above reproach, no matter how much we want to believe they are. There are lots of things we want to believe. We want to believe the values of our homes and our retirements and our other nest eggs could never drop 40 percent in a week. But it can happen. It did happen.
So what else can happen? Anything can happen. Certainly anything seems possible when a man with a whistle in his mouth makes a bizarre call that changes the outcome of a game -- a game that has seen millions of dollars wagered on it, by Lord knows how many heavy hitters and kneecap-breakers and gambling addicts. This is the world we live in. To pretend it's not, well, let other people pretend it's not. Me, I'm going to delve into reality.
And the reality is, three NFL games over the weekend hinged on calls that are difficult to defend. And I'm not even including the Denver Broncos' loss to Jacksonville, though maybe I should. One Jaguars scoring drive was kept alive on a third-and-17 incompletion when officials ruled Broncos cornerback Dre' Bly had committed illegal contact against Reggie Williams on a play in which Williams ran Bly over. That's kind of like saying a bug initiated contact with the windshield of your car.
But that call against Bly was an instantaneous judgment call in which clearly something had happened. Maybe the official looked away at the wrong time, and by the time he looked back, there were two bodies tangled up. That would explain it.
But the calls in the other games -- at Minnesota, at Atlanta and at Washington -- cannot be explained. And because of those calls, two visiting teams lost and a third needed a ridiculous field goal to avoid defeat.
At Minnesota, Detroit was winning 10-9 in the final minutes and had the Vikings in deep trouble: second-and-20 from their own 32. Given the struggles of the Minnesota offense, only something catastrophic would deny Detroit its first victory of the season.
And then it happened -- something catastrophic. An official called pass interference on Detroit cornerback Leigh Bodden, a 42-yard penalty that put the Vikings in range of a gimme field goal with nine seconds left. That pass interference was a play where, unlike the one at Denver involving Bly, nothing happened. There was no contact to speak of. There was no need for a flag, but there came the flag anyway, and it changed the game. Indefensible.
At Atlanta, the Falcons trailed Chicago 20-19 with six seconds left. Atlanta had the ball at its 44 when Matt Ryan found Michael Jenkins 26 yards downfield, a play that somehow took just five seconds off the game clock -- leaving one second for Falcons kicker Jason Elam to convert a 48-yard field goal for the 22-20 victory.
