12/21/24
November 24, 2015
SportsFilter: The Tuesday Huddle:
A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.
I have a question about the ruling on the final play of MNF. My brain tells me that recently (within the last 5-10 years) the out of bounds rule was changed such that the ball carrier has to go out of bounds while attempting to make forward progress in order for the clock to stop. If they just run (or roll, as last night) sideways to get out of bounds, the clock keeps rolling. That makes the call on that final play correct, but neither Steratore nor Blandino explained it that way after the fact. Many people on Twitter last night and a random answers.com post seem to agree with me (and make me think I'm not totally insane), but other than that, I can't find any evidence of that interpretation of the rule. Does this sound familiar to anyone else?
posted by Rock Steady at 08:56 AM on November 24, 2015
SB Nation's Roger Sherman writes about that play, Rocky.
posted by NoMich at 10:03 AM on November 24, 2015
Toronto Blue Jays fans want David Price back
posted by tommybiden at 02:02 PM on November 24, 2015
I did a thing over in the Columns section, if anyone wants to read the probable true lineage of the College Football Belt.
posted by Etrigan at 04:32 PM on November 24, 2015
This morning in the locker room after my workout I was speaking with a guy who told me that his friend had attended the game and had tracked the time during which there was no on-field action due to commercial time out. In the first half alone, it amounted to some 39 minutes. If the NFL wants to slaughter the source of its golden eggs, this -- excessive stoppage of the action -- is the thing that could do it. In my case, it gave me lots of excuses to jump over the the Bruins vs Maple Leafs for updates on the score and to catch a bit of the action.
On the "inadvertent whistle", it looked like Rex Ryan was directly in front of the official and was jumping around and gesticulating wildly, thus obstructing the official's view of the play and causing the official to be watching Ryan to avoid being knocked down. True enough, there was a penalty assessed on the play because of Ryan's conduct, but the NFL ought to follow up with a heavy fine to discourage such behavior. Of course, the official never should have put the whistle in his mouth to start with. An umpiring friend of mine who also does ice hockey told me that one of the things he had been taught to do was never to put the whistle anywhere near his mouth until he was entirely sure that a call should be made. Better the whistle goes a fraction late than too early.
posted by Howard_T at 04:57 PM on November 24, 2015
The thing that pissed me off the most about last night's Bills-Pats inadvertent whistle is how vigorously the damn thing was blown. It was a truly energetic and decisive major fuck up. If it had determined the outcome of the game, they'd be combing the reservoir this morning looking for the line judge.
Replays of Rex Ryan walking in front of the official looked like heist footage that was captured on a bank camera.