Will having full-time NFL officials make any difference?
NFL officials are again in the cross-hairs of fans, media, and pretty much anybody else that watch football. On Sunday, Packers’ wide receiver Greg Jennings fumbled the football, at least according to most interpretations of the slow-motion replay (including mine). It wasn’t called a fumble on the field, and after video review, it still wasn’t called a fumble. Green Bay went on to score a touchdown. Fortunately for the New York Giants, the play had no effect on the game’s outcome — the G-Men stomped the Pack, ending Green Bay’s stellar season.
Reggie McKenzie: former Vol is the right stuff for the Raiders
Good things tend to happen to good people, until proven otherwise. If ESPN’s Adam Schefter is correct, a good thing is about to happen to one of the good guys of the NFL. Reggie McKenzie — Knoxville native (Austin-East H.S.) and former Tennessee Vol (1981-84) – will be named the new General Manager of the Oakland Raiders. This can’t be rendered as official news until Green Bay exits the NFL playoffs. And, that might be a while. [UPDATE: the Associated Press indicated just after this was posted that the Raiders have announced an agreement with the Packers for McKenzie, and a press conference has been announced for next Tuesday.]
A memorable last afternoon of the NFL season
The last day of any NFL season can bring a lot of drama as playoff qualifications and seeds are sorted out. This season’s finale gave us a lot of notable bullet points. The following are those I collected throughout the afternoon based on a variety of Twitter entries and announcements on Fox, CBS, and the NFL Network.
Back to normal
With little less than a minute remaining in the third quarter, New England scored at Denver to put the Pats up 34-14. That was a 20-point deficit for the Broncos against a marquee opponent, at home. A perfect script for another Tebow-esque performance that would have surpassed the previous six comeback wins. It would have been Iron Chef material, with apologies to Geoffrey Zakarian. The final act caved however. Instead of running through brick walls, Tebow’s Broncos traded fourth quarter TDs with the Patriots to let the thin air out of the big Mile High Balloon. It wasn’t in the cards. Of course neither were the previous heroic wins. Thousands of people actually do heroic things every day. God is a busy man. Far too busy for a man making a living playing professional sports. Teach a man to fish…
