Football and finances

An interesting info graphic pertaining to costs associated with the NFL.

In short, football is big business. And when protecting your business, it's important to downplay or brush under the rug anything which may negatively impact the bottom line...such as poor officiating.

Have a look at the numbers

Super Bowl officiating crew announced

The NFL has announced John Parry will be the head referee of Super Bowl XLVI.

Among NFL crews, Parry and company ranked near the top of the pack in penalty yard assessed, and across the board routinely ranked in the top 5 in penalties called by category. Complete officiating stats can be found at FoxSports.

Unfortunately what this points to is a tightly called game. Let's hope that's not the case and Parry let's em play.

Officiating crew announced for Super Bowl XLVI

Don't believe your eyes

Once again, NFL officials have proven incompetent in ruling a fumble correctly in a playoff game.

And once again, the league stands by it's officials.

We all know what a fumble is, right? Player has possession of the football, then loses possession before the play is dead. Someone should give Referee Bill Leavy a refresher course. But considering Leavy's history in the playoffs (see Super Bowl XL for details), should we be surprised the officials are incapable of distinguishing a fumble from down by contact?

More importantly is the fact that despite instant replay and countless camera angles, Leavy STILL got the call wrong. Adding insult to injury is the fact that the league wants us all to believe we're either blind or ignorant of what a fumble is.

The fact remains, the NFL prefers to cover up, downplay, spin or outright lie rather than admit a mistake was made. Such blatant disregard for an honest critique of officials once again calls into question the integrity of the league and is yet another reason why we as fans should trust our eyes, not what the league masters want us to believe.

NFL Discusses Bill Leavy's Ruling On Greg Jennings' Fumble Against Giants

Did refs aide Tebow magic?

NFL rules state a team must have a minimum of 7 players on the line of scrimmage when the ball is snapped. Kinda looks like TE Dante Rosario, was off the line. None the less, no call and Tebow completes an 80 yard TD pass to win the game.

So was it illegal? I suppose it depends on interpretation...and anytime we leave it up to the officials' discretion, you can guarantee there will be controversy.

Interestingly enough, Mike Pereira, Officating "Analyst" for Fox Sports, tweeted "Watch on any Sunday. This is a good formation compared to many. They are not technical with this."

So basically, it's a rule, but only in the general sense that it's in the book, but not really enforced? Huh? This from the same guy who stood by the Tuck Rule? The guy who said all the calls in Super Bowl XL were correct? Now all of a sudden the rules are flexible?

Seems to me Pereira will stick by his guys no matter what. When they're wrong, they were really right. And when they miss a call, it's not really an important rule that's enforced on a regular basis.

Officials try, fail to save Steelers

Fumbles. If only officials could get fumbles correct.

Seems like a simple concept. Player loses ball, player recovers ball, officials award possession. A fumble should be one of the easiest calls to make. Yet time and again I see officials blow a fumble ruling. And time and again I see botched fumble calls in playoff games.

Case in point, Steelers at Broncos.

Trailing 20-6 with 8:15 left in the 3^rd quarter, the Broncos controlled the tempo against an ineffective Steelers offense. QB Ben Roethlisberger threw a backwards pass to Mike Wallace. Wallace missed the catch, but as the pass was backward, it was a live ball...a fumble. As the Broncos were about to recover, an overzealous official blew the play dead.

Instead of a fumble recovery deep in Pittsburgh territory and a chance to all but put the game away, the Steelers maintained possession, marched down field and scored.

The mistake entirely changed the tempo of the game and could well have cost the Broncos the win, were it not for Tebow magic in overtime.

Speaking of Tebow, the officials also missed a face mask on Tebow late in the 4^th quarter, which would have extended a Bronco drive and perhaps given them a chance to get into field goal range. So much for protecting the quarterback.

But I digress. This is about fumbles, officials and lack of consistency. Take for example the night before during the Lions and Saints playoff game.

Brees was hit before his arm came forward, a loose ball bounced around and was recovered by the Lions AFTER the whistle blew. Detroit kept the ball, but were unable to advance the fumble. The NFL has admitted they blew the call, not once but twice.

First, they never should have blown the whistle as it clearly was a fumble. And they never should have awarded the Lions the ball AFTER the whistle blew.

Here's an idea. Keep the damn whistle out of your damn mouth until the play is clearly dead.

Steelers fumble not challenged

League admits errors on Lions-Saints fumble