WTF is going on with the NFL?
 

Besides the games/teams being extremely inconsistent from week to week, you have a variety of strange things going on-

1)the favre debacle
2)the jeff fisher incident where refs were asking him to take time outs to have more commercials in last week's game.
3)the miami-pittsburgh game yesterday with the goal line fumble pretty obviously recovered by miami, but upon instant replay review awarded back to the steelers when clearly rothlisberger did NOT have the ball and did indeed fumbled the ball. btw, ruling official is FROM PITTSBURGH.

is this just a series of coincidental fuck ups or is the nfl truly hitting the skids?

Its turning into the NBA or even worse the WWE.

I don't really follow the NFL anymore and even I have noticed some very odd things just from casual watching. Makes me wonder if any of this has to do with the player's contract being up this year. What exactly, no clue, but I've seen stranger things happen.

More commercials? Is that even physically possible?

insurance companies and lawyers officially run the NFL.. and they were all geeks and dweebs growing up. They cannot comprehend team philosophy and / or on the field strategy.

fuck the kinder gentler nfl

I heard the commentators say that without video evidence of Miami recovering the ball, they have to give it to the Steelers.

There were 2 fucking Dolphins landing on the damn ball. I could see it clearly from every angle. WTF?

I'm a long time Dolphin fan. They've given away almost every loss this season and it's frustrating BUT there is no excuse for bad officiating :mad:

Yesterday's call was clearly the wrong call and it cost them the game.

Last week they went for it on 4th down and clearly got it but was challenged and wrongly overturned. The other team was then able to score. That's a huge point swing and a game changer.

It happens much more often now and not just in the NFL. The NBA is notorious for game changing bad calls and a certain racing series that I watch is making some very inconsistent officiating calls.

I now believe these " sports " are being called in a way to generate viewers and publicity and not to the RULES of the sport. We used to watch the show to see the sport being played. Now the sport is played in a way to just to put on a show.

It was the right call because since it was ruled a touchdown before the replay, the play stopped, like a ref blowing the whistle, which means big ben could have recovered it, but didn't because the play was blown dead.

In that case the Ref blew the whistle way to early. What's to be gained by blowing the whistle immediately after the ball breaks the plane. That just opens the door for big mistakes like yesterday.

If the Ref gave it a few more seconds just to make sure that the play was defiantly over the game would have had a different ending. Miami would have had another win and that might be the difference in them making the playoffs.

It's a BS way to call a game and that flaw needs to be changed. :disgust

I could also argue that I saw a Steeler player get in between both Miami players right where the ball was and he "could have had possession" but I couldn't see it. The goaline ref signaled TD and no other ref bothered to check who had possession. In addition since the goaline ref signaled TD, players gave up worrying about coming up with possession.

It was the right call based on the rules.

But don't worry, Miami won't be winning the Superbowl even if they had won yesterday's game.

I dont think that play should really be a huge controversial call though, yea it was a mistake that they blew the whistle too early, but the Dolphins did get the ball back with 2 mins and 30 secs left on the clock, they still had the chance, but failed to get a first down

I like the whole NFL blackout drama they have going on. If the NFL thinks it can squash the internet sites that show blacked out games with just letters and threats they better get ready for a loss. The music industry tried that and it failed. Wake up NFL and either get rid of the blackout rule or show the game on your website for a small fee.

this is the best season of nfl football in a very long time. the level of parity amongst teams is amazing this year. there are no stand out teams and that's awesome!

the favre debacle? his level of play diminishing? that happens, so what. worse is childress throwing him under the bus at the post-game press conference. the vikings will implode this week. that happens, welcome to the nfl

the refs made the right call in the miami/pitt game, it was a scrum ball, they could not clearly tell who recovered it so the ball goes back to the offense.

commercial breaks, same ole same ole. no different than any other season

Give Miami possession and they have a chance to run out the clock and win the game. Instead, because of a flaw in the rules, a play was ruled incorrectly giving the Steelers possession of the ball and the chance to score three points. Take those three points off the board and that's the difference in the game.

They shouldn't have had to play catchup when they deserved to be leading and that single call, more than anything else changed the outcome of that game.

The AFC teams are looking so much stronger this year than anything the NFC can throw out there right now. I can't see any NFC team looking like it could win the Super Bowl yet there are at least 5, maybe 6 AFC teams that could have the chance. Crazy year indeed...

I only saw the replay once on sportscenter since the game was blacked out in my area but it looked like two Dolphins fell on the ball and once touched by a Steeler the play would be down by contact. I think it's BS that they let them continue to fight for the ball until a ref gets an eyeball on who has it.

this.


i love it!

btw, how many total points were scored in the nfl yesterday, had to be ~700!

that is insane!

the explanation went something like- the refs called it a TD, therefore they were not looking for who had the ball, the(y) thought pittsburgh had it and scored, thus not watching the ending melee carefully. regardless of the fact the miami player who ended up with the ball handed it to a ref.

the ref's did fuck up, a crucial fuck up, but it happens at least once every year. i too wish it didn't happen to miami.

I hate when that happens :)

It just seems like controversial, game changing calls are pretty common these days and it's getting to be pretty aggravating.

if there were like 30 seconds then yea it would have been a pretty fucked up call, but they still had 2 and a half mins to kick a field goal and they couldnt.
and how about D hall getting 4 interceptions! thats crazy!

Yup, it gets really, really old watching the refs constantly doing whatever they can do ensure that the Steelers and the Pats win.

can't wait for the game tonite!

yep that official from pittsburgh was very fast to blow that play dead:disgust

the nfl is going to shit

I agree. The call was complete bullshit. Miami should have had the ball back at the 20. However, as much as I love the Dolphin's, Henne and the team is not a closing team. He should have been able to get them into field goal range to win it anyway. It was a great game burt a disappointing ending.

I'm just sayin'

i watched this game + i've seen just about ever angle video shot of this play and not one of them shows the ref who made the call,

how do y'all know it was called too early?

There you go - the exact reason I cannot watch NFL football. The number of commercials destroys my interest. That and those gawd-awful announcers blabbing constantly. I guess their contract states that they have to be talking every second and it is so annoying. I wish I could get a feed that was straight from the field - no commercials and only crowd noise - that would be so much more enjoyable to me.

What I don't understand is why didn't the refs make the call in the endzone in the pile.. isn't that what they always do when there is a fumble.. they clear the pile and determine who has possession on the bottom. Did they completely forget to do that? They shouldn't have had to use video to determine who had the ball.

Precisely. The call was correct.

It is called the rules.

Name a professional sport better to watch in person and on TV. Let's see the results.

These are the facts. maybe?

I am glad I am not as old as you..................just saying.

GO BUCS!! lol

Here's the play from TV. I don't know why they included a commercial.

The Ref admits that it was in fact a fumble but because they couldn't determine who recovered it the Steelers were given the possession.

It clearly shows two Dolphins falling on it first and as soon as they have possession and are touched by a Steeler they are down and the play is dead. It's not who ends up with the ball by the time the ref gets there. Even if that were true someone said in the end a Dolphin player handed the ball to a ref.

So with video proof that two Dolphins had the ball on the ground and a Dolphin ending up with it last the Dolphins should have been given possession.

I'll also point out that at :54 sec into the video there are TWO refs watching the fumble recovery and weeding through the pile. They should have been able to determine who had possession just like they would have done in a normal play in the middle of the field.

They needed video replay to determine the fumble which they admit it was. The second half of the play should've been determined by the refs standing right there over the pile.

Pretty sure the play ends when the whistle blows. Everything else is secondary.

True, but as the official said after the review the ball was fumbled but there was no evidence Miami recovered the ball which is not true unless he is blind.

As a Steeler fan I have to say these calls go both ways. Over the years the Steelers have had their share of bad calls as have all teams.

Get over it!

Some plays are not reviewable. This one was or it wasn't and they spent ten minutes reviewing it anyways :upsidedow


In the video I posted the Ref admits it was a fumble. If a single Dolphin would have recovered the ball they would have given Miami the possession. If the Steelers had recovered the ball it would have been a touchdown.

According to the Refs explanation, they couldn't determine who recovered the fumble so the Steelers retained possession. I didn't see any indication that the play was called dead at the whistle and the play was not reviewable.