Football Zebras.com

The NFL homepage ran an Associated Press story quoting the Rich McKay, Falcons president and Competition Committee co-chairman. As it does almost every year, according to the commissioner, the Competition Committee is looking into the competitive balance of the current sudden-death overtime format. The committee met in Indianapolis before the Scouting Combine and are currently adjourned until March.

The review will likely lead to no change in the overtime rules. If there is a change, it would be nothing more than moving the overtime kickoff forward five yards.

Three reasons lead me to believe there is no change: (1) there is no formal proposal submitted for a specific rule change; (2) coaches still favor the system as it has existed since it was implemented in 1974; (3) Jeff Fisher, Titans head coach and the other committee co-chairman, is encouraging more study into any possible changes.

The one thing that keeps coming up is the idea that the coin flip determines the outcome. Of course, this discounts the role of the defense and the special teams—all important parts of a balanced team. However, I propose doing away with the coin flip and giving the option to the team that was last in the lead. In other words, if your team caused the tie, it is the same as if your team lost the coin flip. This also eliminates the possibility of a team tying in the final seconds of the fourth quarter, winning the toss, and scoring on the first possession of overtime.

The NFL announced, through Adam Schefter’s blog, that Steelers’ receiver Santonio Holmes was fined $10,000 for his end-zone celebration by using the ball as a prop. The celebration came on the game-winning touchdown of Super Bowl XLIII.

Vice-president of officiating Mike Pereira acknowledged on the NFL Network after the Super Bowl that the celebration should have been flagged, causing the Steelers to kick off from its 15 yard line on the ensuing kickoff. Pereira clearly pointed to the fact that field judge Greg Gautreaux watched the celebration at length until he had to set for the point-after-touchdown try.

Had the celebration been flagged, yes, it could’ve changed the complexion of the final Cardinals drive. Schefter says that the Cardinals could have used those 15 yards, and that future replays should show the fact that, in his estimation, the officials blew the call. Pretty assertive on a page with nfl.com in the URL.

However, this fails in two areas. First, the official watched the play for any unsportsmanlike conduct following the touchdown. He did have to shift his focus to the extra-point try, as the 40-second clock was already ticking. Gautreaux did exactly what he is supposed to do. Second, games are won on the field, not by the officials. Remember, the Steelers recovered from the safety-by-penalty and the Cardinals go-ahead touchdown by mounting their own game-winning drive. That is what the record should show.

The Elmira (N.Y.) Star-Gazette ran an profile on the career of  the recently retired NFL field judge Duke Carroll. [Link unfortunately goes behind a paywall on the newspaper's site after Feb. 21.] He served as an NFL official for 14 seasons.

Plenty of attention is placed on the punishing physical abuse on the players’ bodies. Although NFL officials don’t get knocked around to often, they must be in top physical shape to keep up with players younger than their children.

Unfortunately for Carroll, his knees told him at the beginning of the season that 2008 would be his last. He officiated his last game in the Colts–Chargers overtime Wild Card game under referee Ron Winter. Carroll, in fact, called one of the two defensive holding penalties on the Colts in the extra session.

He worked on Jeff Triplette’s crew for seven years.

“Some guys like to be rock stars, some guys like to grab headlines,” Triplette said. “Duke was one of those guys who went out and did his job day in and day out.

“If I was his dad, I’d be proud to call him my son. He just makes you so proud.”

Carroll started in the NFL in 1995, the year that the expansion Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars joined the league, necessitating more officials.

Walt Coleman is now a Hall of Famer.

Don’t expect to find a bust of him in Canton — there are currently no referees enshrined, despite many qualified candidates. Instead, the NFL head referee got a brief moment, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, to accept induction into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame. His father, Buddy Coleman, an NCAA official in the former Southwest Conference, was inducted in 1995.

When he is off the field, Walt Coleman is the fifth generation operator of the family business: Coleman Dairy in Little Rock. There must be something in the milk, as the dairy is, in addition to the two Colemans, home to a third Hall of Famer, Cliff Shaw, also a former zebra from the SWC.

It was the family business, in fact, that drove Walt Coleman to the NFL. The Southwest Conference allowed native Arkansans to officiate University of Arkansas games. Coleman, not wanting to affect the business, applied for work in the NFL. He was hired as a line judge in the big league in 1989 and promoted to referee in 1995. He served as an alternate for Super Bowl XLII to Mike Carey.

Coleman hinted about a possible retirement in 2013 in a very fascinating Arkansas Democrat-Gazette profile back in January:

“I’d be 61 if I’m in the league 25 years,” Coleman said. “Not many people can say that they’ve been in the league 25 years, so that would be nice.”

Fortunately, the Coleman family business is more than milk. Coleman’s retirement could make room for his son, Walter Coleman IV, who is working as a line judge in the Big 12 Conference.

The Ada Evening News of Ada, Okla., has a story on resident headlinesman Derick Bowers, who officiated Super Bowl XLIII. He provides an interesting read on the off-the-field work of an NFL official and about his officiating career.

As for the Big Game, Bowers offered this assessment:

“We were pleased with how it went,” Bowers recalled. “We’re only human. There are times when we’ll miss some (calls).

“There were some penalties we probably shouldn’t have called that we did and some that could have called that we didn’t,” he added, “but overall I think it went pretty well.”

Bowers worked with referee John Parry’s crew. He was the only member of that crew selected to this year’s Super Bowl.

In order to minimize injuries, the Pro Bowl plays modified rules that protect the players. Basically, pass rushes are shut down, and standard formations are used. A summary of the rule modifications from the league’s Record and Fact Book:

• The offensive formations must have a tight end and have no more than two receivers on either end. No motion or shifting is allowed.
• The defense must line up in the standard 3–4 formation, evenly spaced, with linebackers in a two-point stance (three-point stance permissible in goal-line situations). Outside linebackers can rush the quarterback in short yardage or inside the 5-yard line.
• Safeties must play man-for-man or with limited zone coverage (3-deep with strong-safety rotating and no 5-deep zones).
• Intentional grounding rules are relaxed when the quarterback throws to the line of scrimmage to avoid a sack.
• On punts, the defense can rush 6 players, 3 per size. On placekicks, the nose tackle can be the 7th rusher.

If the game ends in a tie, they will play an overtime period.

This year’s game marks the last of 30 consecutive Pro Bowls played in Hawaiʻi. Next season’s game will be played Jan. 31, 2010 in Miami the week before the Super Bowl. As a result, players selected from the two Super Bowl teams will not compete in the Pro Bowl.

Mike Pereira, the NFL vice president of officiating, conducted his last “Official Review” segment (video) of the season on the NFL Network today. Periera is retiring at the conclusion of next season.

Pereira did acknowledge the controversy about not having Kurt Warner’s fumble on the last play reviewed:

Looking back at it now after the fact, you know, it was close enough, although it wouldn’t have changed anything whatsoever. … Had [replay official Bob McGrath] stopped it, it would’ve stayed a fumble. But, again, looking at it, at that big of a play at the end of the game, I would’ve sent it down and given [head referee Terry] McAulay a chance to look at it. …

You learn and … next time it happens, at this point of the game, this big of a play, let’s go ahead and [call for a replay review].

Pereira stated that McAulay had a chance to see the play after the game and concurred that the ruling would stand. The ruling on the play was that, although Warner had the ball in his hand while it was moving forward, he did not have control of it. I don’t think that will be enough to satisfy conspiracy theorists.

However, it appears the replay guidelines will be amended to state controversial calls at pivotal points in the game will get a review.

Also in the segment, Pereira backed up the assessment we had on James Harrison’s interception return. He also said that Santonio Holmes’ celebration on the game-winning touchdown should have been penalized, but since it happened so long after the play, the officials’ attention was to set up for the point-after attempt.

Super Bowl XLIII: Pittsburgh vs. Cardinals

Video from NFL.com

Officials don’t win or lose games. The Cardinals had a three-point lead with 2:47 remaining in the fourth quarter. So, rather the defense is mostly responsible for the outcome, rather than the denial of a last-second desperation play.

Kurt Warner’s last ditch effort did, however, deserve more than a cursory look at three angles. It is hard to believe that the evidence is conclusive enough to confirm whether or not Warner fumbled the ball. The New York Times’ Fifth Down blog has sequential photos of the play, suggesting this could be the Tuck Rule II.

In this case, the on-field officiating crew had done everything correct. The replay official, Bob McGrath — not the denizen of Sesame Street, I hope — was the sole decider on whether a last-minute play gets a review by Terry McAulay, the head referee.

The league’s vice president of officiating, Mike Pereira, backed up McGrath’s assessment to NBC:

We confirmed it was a fumble. The replay assistant in the replay booth saw it was clearly a fumble. The ball got knocked loose and was rolling in his hand before it started forward. He has to have total control.

Well, yeah, but sometimes you have to think that the magnitude of the call requires another look-see. And especially since there already was a fumble-to-incomplete reversal on the first drive of the third quarter.

This is an odd situation in the world of refereedom. If any one official makes an incorrect call, and it is not corrected, the bad call is pinned on all seven officials. However, the decision of the replay official has no on-field intervention.

Further frustrating the Cardinals sideline was the fact that they were a perfect 2-for-2 on red-flag challenges, being awarded the rare third challenge for being correct on the first two. However, that challenge disappears from the ledger once the two-minute warning is called in the fourth quarter.

Super Bowl XLIII: Steelers vs. Cardinals

Video from NFL.com

James Harison’s goal-line-to-goal-line run fortunately, and correctly, survived the replay review, but would not have been entirely disasterous if overturned.

Even though time expired during the play, an Arizona facemask call would have given the Steelers another shot at the end zone. Being a personal foul, as I understand it, would have been enforced from the end of the run, which would have been a three-blades-of-grass-distance penalty. And, since the Steelers became the offense the instant the ball was intercepted, they would have been able to extend the quarter by one untimed down by rule. (I believe the Steelers, if they were so inclined, could have opted to kick off as the play stood, if they did not decline the penalty.)

Fortunately, the play stood, and the 100-yard, record-setting rumble overtook Lynn Swann’s acrobatic catch in Super Bowl X as the greatest Steeler catch in Super Bowl history. For almost two quarters, at least.

One final note on the replay: NBC had 52 cameras covering the game and at the disposal of replay review. In a regular-season game, the network will have fixed camera locations at the 20s and the 50-yard line. NBC mixed in two goal-line-plane cameras to the live coverage, which came in handy for two of the reviews. This also gave us the awkward angle for the live shot on the interception return, since the same camera followed the play from coast to coast. But once we saw the replay from the camera 100 yards away, it was clear this was a score. The remaining 255 games played during the NFL season do not have these superb angles, leading to the dreaded “inconclusive evidence” ruling.

Super Bowl XLIII: Steelers vs. Cardinals

Video from NFL.com

The team safety awarded to the Cardinals — by virtue of the holding penalty enforced in the end zone — was the sixth safety in Super Bowl history. But, it was the first due to penalty.