The NFL Is Broken

I feel like there's a general rule with how I decide on topics for Confessions of a Sportscaster. There are the somewhat scheduled posts, either for the Death to the BCS Playoffs, Pigskin Pick 'Em contest, or Game Notes from North Central games. Then there's the unscheduled ones, where something happens and I feel compelled to write about it. It happened in September when the NFL couldn't figure out what the hell roughing the passer is. My most cited one is when Lance Easley and Golden Tate stole a win with their bullcrap (and make sure you see through The Ringer's lies; that play was not even remotely close to 50-50).

But Saints fans might be justified in thinking they got screwed over more than Green Bay did that fateful night in 2012. And Chiefs fans? They could serve as a catalyst for another rule change that's arguably just as important.


By now, you've seen the play. But if you haven't, let's let my favorite s***poster share the details with some context of just how terrible officiating has been this season. Please note that the below video does contain NSFW language.

He also touched on a bad call in the AFC Championship Game, but that's not the target of my ire for that game. We'll get to that in a moment.

Photo by Gerald Herbert (AP)

In the seconds, minutes, and now hours since Bill Vinovich's crew missed a blatant pass interference by Nickell Robey-Coleman on Tommylee Lewis, Saints fans have been understandably pissed. For context, had pass interference or even a personal foul for a helmet to helmet hit been called, the Saints would have had first down with about 1:45 to play. Three kneel downs, factoring in the Rams having one timeout, would have given the Rams, at best, 25 seconds including the ensuing kickoff to answer a Saints field goal with no timeouts. It's not a guaranteed win for New Orleans, but to suggest that that call didn't impact the outcome of the game is intellectually dishonest.

On my text chain with Adam of COAS Pigskin Pick 'Em fame and my brother-in-law Joe, Adam texted about this play as I was watching it on my phone. His initial reaction was like everyone else's: it needed to be a flag. He later said, "Mark that play. Challenge rules will be changed to allow for PI challenges." And I think the NFL is going to have to this offseason if it wants to regain any semblance of credibility.

Photo by David J. Phillip (AP)

This rule is currently in place in the CFL, and I think it can be pretty seamlessly brought to the NFL. You keep the number of challenges (two, plus a third if your first two are successful) and just expand the list of reviewable calls to include pass interference. I'd say just leave it at that, with the possibility of including obvious ones like false starts or illegal shifts/formations as well, but that's about it. I'd love to include roughing the passer, but that's probably a tougher one to be able to effectively review, and we all know Al Riveron would continue to screw it up.

Alas, this rule won't come in time to provide relief for the Saints, and the Rams are bound for Atlanta. They'll get the Patriots, whose AFC championship wasn't without some level of controversy either. UrinatingTree already touched on the bad roughing the passer call, and there was some talk about replay reviews helping the Patriots, although there isn't much uproar there because it seems like they got all those calls right.

Photo from Getty Images (Photographer uncredited)

Instead, the talk is about the overtime format. In the NFC game, a Drew Brees interception turned the game into sudden death. But in Kansas City, the Patriots won the overtime coin toss, and proceeded to carve up the Chiefs' defense for the game-winning touchdown. Patrick Mahomes could only watch from the sideline as Brady converted a trio of third downs before handing the ball to Rex Burkhead for the game-winner.

Now, I'll admit a touch of bias here. Aaron Rodgers is 9-7 in his postseason career. Three of those losses have come in overtime, in which two of those Rodgers didn't even touch the football in extra time. One of those in particular still really, really hurts. I understand the argument against this: defense is part of the game as well, and if you can't stop your opponent you don't deserve a second chance. But that means turning the outcome of a game over to a coin flip. And I'm not okay with that.

Just like Aaron Rodgers got screwed twice, Patrick Mahomes got gipped out of a chance to make himself a legend by the coin landing heads instead of tails. The NFL did things right by getting rid of straight up sudden death overtime a few years back, but they need to go farther, at least in the postseason. Playoff games should require giving both teams an opportunity to possess the ball. And yes, were this the rule from the get-go it would have removed such dramatic endings as Tebow versus the Steelers and the conclusion of the Tom Brady Revenge Tour. But it's a more fair method that decides the outcome on the field than the current method that technically decides the outcome on the field, but not in the traditional sense.

Photo by Seth Wenig (AP)

This is less an issue to me than the glaring one presented in New Orleans yesterday. But it proves once again that the NFL is broken. Sure, ratings are great, and one of the most exciting young teams in the league is playing for a Lombardi trophy. But when conspiracy theories are running rampant because your officials continue to be horrible at their jobs, it's more than fair to say the NFL is broken. The league as we know it may be nearing a dramatic fall, and these are the early stages to it.