Redskins’ followers are having heartburn over Robert Griffin’s touchdown score that was reversed. Like Santana Moss, they are losing their heads when they should be keeping it.
Here are four points to remember.
No. 1 — It did not affect the outcome of the game
The reversal came at the end of the half, not the end of the game. The Redskins lost the second half 17-3. That is a far bigger problem than NFL New York’s picky interpretation of scoring and replay rules. If RG’s touchdown stood, the final score would have been Giants 24-20, 21-20 if your take away the field goal Santana Moss’ angry outburst allowed the Giants to get.
No. 2 — Don’t shoot the messenger
Moss, Coach Gruden and Pierre Garcon erupted at the on field official when the replay official negated Griffin’s score. The on field officials called the touchdown. They were our friends. They were also the people that announced the reversal decided by others. Nothing Moss, Gruden or Garcon did was leading to a reversal of the reversal.
I gather that Moss was incensed since he was pulling for a good performance by RG. That’s fine, but senior members of the team must not lose their heads. Others feed off it. In this game, it gave the Giants prime field position and points. Moss, Gruden, Garcon … and RGIII … should go stand in a corner and read Kipling’s If.
No. 3 — Another good reason to watch the game from home
If you watched the game in the stadium, you missed Mike Pereira’s almost immediate commentary on why the touchdown would be reversed, which it was for the very reasons he gave.
(Pereira wrote a good explanation of the replay rules and that whole “full process of the catch” thing a couple of years ago.)
Home teams are reluctant to show replays in the stadium for fear it might help the visiting team. Get over it. If the NFL wants to offer a live experience that is the better than your home theater, they have to make home viewer commentary part of the stadium value package.
That gets to license fees, broadcast contracts and a ton if copyright issues too deep to get into on a blog. The bottom line is that you are better informed watching this from home at no charge than from the stadium for $100 $50 $10 $5 per ticket.
No. 4 — I hope to hear that Gruden’s staff left the coaches box and were headed to the locker room when Gruden’s temper tantrum erupted
Otherwise, it would mean that the staff knew of the review and did not warn the boss of what might happen and why. An uninformed boss is prone to shoot messengers and drawing penalties. (See above.) The technical term for this is “management breakdown.”
If Gruden checked his temper, Moss might have, too.
I prefer the illusion that the staff just was not in the booth when all this went down. That’s easily understood since there were no time left on the clock.
I can deal with that. I cannot deal with management confusion, so don’t burst my bubble.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
