Missed calls help set stage for Super Bowl

It's Super Bowl Week (which lasts two weeks to fully aggrandize a game), so indulge me another post about football. 

The hot news this week, much to the chagrin on National Football League executives, is all about badly missed calls in the NFC and AFC Championship games last Sunday. Fans of the New Orleans Saints and the Kansas City Chiefs think their teams were robbed of Super Bowl slots because of bad officiating.

Gripes about the officiating are common in all sports that leave some key penalties and declarations in the hands of referees, umpires and officials. Most of these calls involve some human judgment, which is fallible. What makes last Sunday's gripes a little different is that the faulty judgment was displayed in slow motion and seemed clearly mistaken. The Saints complained vociferously about a pass interference incident that was not called. The game officials did not see a violation of the rules and made no call. In the AFC game, the Chiefs complained that game officials' quickness to call penalties that were not flagrant or obvious — no harm, no foul, play-on situations — or a game-changing call that was simply mistaken. These calls were made in the crucial final minutes of the close game. The most egregious was a roughing-the-passer call (15-yard penalty) that replay showed didn't happen. The defensive lineman's swipe at Patriots' QB Tom Brady missed him entirely.

In nearly every game played there are missed calls, sins of commission or sins of omission by the officials. Most of the time, these missed calls balance out, and both teams have some justification for their grievances. But these were division championship games, and the missed calls were more obvious than is usual.

The NFL has tried to reduce game-changing mistakes by incorporating reviews of instant replays that frequently overturn the instantaneous opinions of the referees. But instant replay reviews take time and are frustrating for fans and teams. Neither of the key penalties in the division championships were reviewable under current rules. Those rules might change, but don't expect changes that second-guesses every call on the field. That would be chaotic.

Fans and teams will have to accept that calling penalties on the football field is an inexact science hindered by human frailty. Instant replay can only do so much, and videos can be as misleading and as misjudged as live action.

Enjoy the game on Feb. 3 and hope for fewer controversial calls.

Football, Super Bowls and the future

This Super Bowl weekend, numerous articles are pointing out the decline in the popularity of the National Football League. President Trump has suggested the decline in NFL game TV ratings is the result of players' protests during the pregame National Anthem. More sober analyses show many factors account for the ratings decline, including the "cut the cord" movement (which has resulted in an overall decline in network/cable viewing), the lack of success by fans' favorite teams (Dallas Cowboys and others) and individual players (Cam Newton and others), and the acknowledgement that traumatic brain injuries are plaguing the entire sport.

Another factor, largely unacknowledged, is the never-ending hype of the networks and the NFL to cram two entire weeks of anticipation into the calendar before the Super Bowl takes place. Sunday's game is scheduled for 6:30, but NBC's coverage of the game begins at noon. That strikes me as a textbook definition of overkill. Fans' capacity for minute details and "expert" opinions has been stretched beyond the breaking point.

This all-day coverage is aimed at selling more high-priced commercial time, of course. The Super Bowl captures the largest annual viewership and charges the highest quarter-minute price for commercials. Super Bowl commercials have become an event almost as anticipated as the game itself.

In the 52-year history (or the LII history if you're into the NFL's pretentious Roman numerals) of Super Bowls, I've probably closely watched 46 (that XLVI) of them. I'll watch number LII Sunday, even though my favorite teams faltered in the regular season or playoffs and won't be on the field.

Despite its inherent violent collisions and dangers of serious, even permanent, injury, football can provide moments of beauty, such as a perfectly arced pass that drops the football into the receiver's hand 60 yards from where it was unleashed, a sudden zig-zag that frees a runner to scamper into the end zone past prostate defensive players who were faked out by the move, or a ballet-like leap into the air to snag a pass and return to earth within the painted lines on the field.

These moments are why I still watch the game, even though I find college football more interesting and exciting. Both collegiate and professional football are facing an existential threat in the form of crippling brain traumas that leave retired players with severe mental disabilities and/or dementia. Participation in football is declining at the middle school and high school level. Parents are reluctant to allow their sons to play a game that can result in their permanent disability. Without youth football to supply the apprentices to the college and pro games, the sport cannot survive. Even though the NFL and the NCAA have imposed new rules to limit the severity of collisions to the head and neck, the hazard of debilitating concussions and dementia persists. Better helmets don't seem to be the answer.

I'll watch the Super Bowl Sunday knowing that the event might not reach its ninety-ninth year (that would be Super Bowl IC), and I will look forward to the start of the college football season (although my team isn't doing well) with all its hoopla, youthful excitement, and perfect blue skies. It's one of the reasons I love the autumn.

Protesting the national anthem

I did not watch any NFL games yesterday. My schedule did not allow it. I have followed the disagreements over players' actions during the playing of the national anthem in news reports, so I'm aware of the controversy.

My initial reaction is that I have always objected to the use of non-political public events to promote political views. I have sat through stage productions, fundraisers, school events and, yes, sporting events that were used to promote political viewpoints. My objection is not to the political views themselves but to the exploitation of a captive audience to promote those views. The innocently trusting audience had no way of knowing they would hear a political spiel and had no way of escaping. Welcome to "bait-and-switch."

NFL players have demonstrated their objections to the killing of African-Americans by police (or associated issues) by refusing to show respect to the United States during the playing of the national anthem. Instead of standing silently, hats off and hand over heart (as etiquette prescribes), players have knelt on one knee, turned away or simply ignored the anthem. The protests began with one player and has spread to others.

President Trump greatly magnified the protest when he called on NFL owners to "fire" any player who failed to show respect to the flag. The president's disrespect of players' concerns turned other players and NFL owners against the president and multiplied the number of protesters

Although protests are protected by the First Amendment, this is not so much a legal issue as a respect issue. Football players — or teachers, entertainers or celebrities — should respect the audience that came to see them play or sing or dance. They should exercise their First Amendment rights in a manner that respects others while still getting their message across. Modern media offer multitudes of opportunities for free expression. Millionaire football players have even greater opportunities to claim the spotlight without disrupting events people have paid dearly to watch.

You would think that the powerful and wealthy NFL Players Association could find a reasonable compromise for this issue before more fans are alienated. Let protesting players pass out leaflets at the stadium; let players address issues after the game is over. The NFL could even eliminate the playing of the national anthem, which, until recently, had received little attention. The old baseball joke went like this: "What's the last two words of the national anthem?" "Play ball."

Super Bowl's final minutes worth waiting for

Last night's Super Bowl lived up to its billing. The last four minutes or so were super football performances. Arizona's last touchdown drive and Pittsburgh's final winning drive were both things of beauty, turning what had been a lopsided first half into an exciting ending.

This was a Super Bowl in which I had no real favorite. My favored teams had fallen earlier in the playoffs, but I was still happy for Pittsburgh and Arizona. I had been a Steelers fan during their glory years of Chuck Knoll, Terry Bradshaw, Lynn Swann, John Stallworth, Mean Joe Greene and all the rest. But I also like to pull for the underdog, and the Arizona Cardinals certainly fit that description. Kurt Warner proved again that he's one of the top quarterbacks of the last two decades. Even with different teams and different talent levels, even with being benched in favor of a younger, glitzier quarterback, he quarterbacks as if he were prenatally designed for the job. The awarding of the Walter Payton trophy, the NFL's humanitarian award, to Warner before the game started was especially touching. Warner had been ignored by the NFL, turned into a league MVP and won a Super Bowl, then benched and overlooked again before coming back this season at an age when others would have been retired. Through it all, his character has been unchanging.

So I was sort of pulling for the Cardinals, and mostly for Warner. I was glad to see him put together that last touchdown drive. But the Steelers deserved to win. That final drive and that final TD pass will be talked about for years.

Now the NFL season is over. I'll miss the excitement over the next seven months, and I'll especially miss it after college basketball closes its season around the first of April. But like the fresh fall air and the spectacular autumn colors, football will return again. Baseball has its adherents and college basketball can be exciting, but, for me, American football, with its varied strategies as complex as chess and war and its combination of graceful moves and brute force is the ultimate distraction.

Mistakes make the difference in playoffs

It's not the skills you bring to the contest, it's the mistakes you make — or avoid — that count. Never was this more obvious than in Saturday's NFL playoff games. The teams that avoided mistakes won. The teams that kept stubbing their toes lost.

The Tennessee Titans ran up and down the field in the first half against the Baltimore Ravens, but they could manage just seven points because of crucial turnovers. For the game, the Titans had three turnovers inside the 10-yard line — turnovers that robbed them of at least a field goal and, likely, touchdowns.

In the night game, the Carolina Panthers were abysmal on their home field against the Arizona Cardinals. Panthers QB Jake Delhomme turned the ball over six times — five times on interceptions — in what has to be one of the worst games in his spotty career. Sometimes interceptions get blamed on the quarterback when he wasn't really at fault. But on most of the interceptions last night, Delhomme was at fault — he threw into double coverage, he ignored defensive backs in the path of his pass or he just threw an errant pass.

The Titans and the Panthers were favored Saturday, but their mistakes, not their skills and accomplishments, made the difference at the end. For the Panthers, who thought they had fixed their problems from last season, will have to take a long, hard look at Delhomme, a fiery, emotional player who has been a team leader but whose achievements have fallen short of stardom.

Aging NFL quarterbacks give us hope

Does anyone (besides me) remember Dieter Brock? Twenty-three years ago, Los Angeles Rams coach John Robinson announced Brock, who had been playing in the Canadian Football League, as the Rams' starting quarterback. What set Brock apart (other than his lack of experience in the NFL) was his age. He was 34, and that was old for a quarterback, especially a rookie. It was also very close to my own age, so I identified with Brock after reading a magazine article about him.

Unfortunately, my hope that Brock would prove that we old guys still had a little life left in us didn't pan out. Brock set some rookie records with the Rams but didn't return the next year, and the Rams left Los Angeles a few years later.

NFL coaches since then have focused on tall, strong college quarterbacks who can be trained and polished to get ready for the big leagues. But something odd has happened recently. Some of the league's best quarterbacks are hanging around and proving that good athletes who are even older than Dieter Brock was 23 years ago can still win. Brett Favre, who retired after all-pro years at Green Bay, is out of retirement and performing like a 25-year-old with the New York Jets. Favre is 39.

Or look at Jeff Garcia, who has played for more NFL teams than I've cheered for, is going strong at Tampa Bay at age 38. Or look at Kurt Warner, who won the Super Bowl MVP award in 2000 with the St. Louis Rams (formerly of Los Angeles). He's 37 and doing well with the Arizona Cardinals this year.

Not so long ago, a quarterback who could survive the beating and grinding of the NFL into his 30s was doing phenomenally well. The NFL is tougher than ever. The defensive linemen and linebackers and bigger and stronger than ever. But the quarterbacks seem to this not-too-fanatical fan to be getting older and older. And for us older fans, that's not a bad thing. Although we're even older than the league's aging quarterbacks, and our fantasies have long ago dissolved, it's still encouraging that guys in their late 30s can survive the pounding of the  NFL. Maybe that means we can still walk, lift weights or even play a little backyard ball with the grandchildren into our 60s.

Right now, I'm pulling for Brett Favre to be a starting quarterback in his 40s.