Tony Romo, this one's for you.
Eight months after the Dallas Cowboys and their quarterback were victimized by a slick ball in last season's playoff loss to Seattle, the NFL has taken steps to make sure they, he ... heck, anyone won't complain about the slippery business again.
|
|
| Tony Romo bobbled the snap on a field-goal attempt with 1:19 left in Dallas' wild-card loss at Seattle. (US Presswire) |
Of course, I'm just using Seattle as an example, though it's clear that Romo's fumbled hold in last year's wild-card playoff game against the Seahawks influenced the league's decision.
"Is it a direct result?" asked Mike Pereira, the league's vice president of officiating. "No. It's not a direct result. But it figured into it."
So how will things change? That's why I'm here, folks. According to Pereira, the NFL hires 16 people with officiating backgrounds -- all of whom are on the league's candidates list -- and has them travel to and from games with that day's crew and that day's footballs.
There are 12 footballs, though the ball guy -- really, now, we can't call him a ballboy -- carries only two with him to the sidelines. The rest remain in another area, available if and when they're needed.
The balls are marked K-1, K-2, K-3 and so forth, with the league-endorsed "K-ball coordinator" -- and that's how he is known -- introducing them in sequence. Only there's a catch: He opens the game with K-1 but will introduce K-2 for the next kickoff and rotate them.
The idea, of course, is to keep the balls in play until another is needed.
"In probably 75 percent of the games (this summer)," Pereira said, "only two were used."
The new practice was launched after Dallas let last year's playoffs, pardon the expression, slip away, and it seems to have taken hold without a hiccup. The NFL introduced it this summer for all preseason games, and there were no complaints.
"Everyone seemed to really like it," said Pereira.
The idea was implemented for last season's playoffs, too, though too late to help Romo. The league went with it from the divisional games on through the Super Bowl, said Pereira, with one of the two alternate officials for each playoff game in charge of the footballs.
Now that man has an official designation and uniform. If you're looking for him Sunday, he's the one on the sideline in the maroon shirt and officials' pants, socks and shoes, poised to put the next ball into play.
It's all, as Pereira said, about "the integrity of the game," and if the NFL can close one more loophole to reduce the fallout from Sunday, why not? Hey, that's what instant replay was all about, remember? Well, now the Cowboys can't say they weren't heard.
"Honestly," said Bruce DeHaven, the former Dallas special teams coordinator who now, ironically, works with Seattle and who lobbied years for a change, "I have not spent one second of the offseason thinking about that kick."
That doesn't mean he hasn't thought about its impact. When I asked if he believed the NFL's new practice is the result of what happened to him and the Cowboys in Seattle, DeHaven handled the question more surely than Tony Romo did the football.
"Absolutely, without question," he said.
