A Little Taste Of Hypocrisy

I have said it before, and I'll say it again. The NFL has gone soft! I have talked about it, written articles about it, and have actually written letters to the NFL addressing my concern stemming from the "over-thinking" of calls designed to protect the safety of players. Of course, I have never received a reply from any NFL representative. I also, it is worth noting, have never been disagreed with by any football fan that the calls for both excessive celebration and unnecessary roughness have gone way to far. These calls have gone past ridiculous and have begun staining the game.

Having said that, I am further baffled by the league's nonchalant inclusion of these hits in their highlight reels and official videos.

In this video, the NFL previews the week 13 match-up of the Seattle Seahawks and the Washington Redskins. I love the way the video ends with Seattle's Tavaris Jackson hurling it deep to a wide open Sidney Rice for a touchdown. The film ends at a climactic moment when rice throws two air punches in celebration and ends his touchdown dance with a throat slash gesture, a motion strategically timed with the musical score's final guitar riff.

http://www.nfl.com/videos/auto/09000d5d82464d16/Week-12-Redskins-vs-Seahawks-Preview

Of course, if you watched the game you would have seen Rice flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct specifically for the throat slash gesture which cost the 'Hawks 15 yards on the ensuing kickoff. If the league wants to set a tone that condemns celebrations that include some obscure reference to violence, maybe they shouldn't turn and utilize the footage of the act to their media advantage later. If it isn't okay for Sidney Rice to use the gesture to rile up the crowd, it isn't okay for the league to use it to rile up viewers. It's just that simple.

Even more alarming than the impact of these nauseatingly weak calls on the NFL is that they have bled over into the collegiate ranks. I watched this weekend in horror as a Texas A&M corner back was flagged for unnecessary roughness for barely touching a receiver who had already dropped the ball. The corner was clearly pulling back off of the hit and the receiver barely responded to the "hit" in question. The call gave the Longhorns a first down at midfield with a little over a minute left breathing new life into what would have been a stalled drive. This has all gone too far!

Calls like this having a direct affect on college games really gets my goat! I mean, college is the last bastion of real passion for the sport before millions of dollars are introduced. College is where playing for pride is more important than money, especially in a hallowed rivalry game like this one that goes back 118 meetings, Throw in the fact that this might be the last meeting between these two teams, the game should never have been altered by such a ticky-tacky call!

There will always be questionable calls, but there exists now, both in the NFL and the NCAA, a questionable culture. Somebody needs to stop the madness and ask the simplest of questions:

Are we playing football or not!?