Doug B
Footballguy
(originally posted in the NFC Championship Game thread, slight edits herein)
Yeah, I understand. It's fun to see a hated team and an arrogant coach get jobbed. Get what's coming to them. Wouldn't expect less from Vikings, Falcons, Eagles, Panthers fans, etc. You guys are the faithful opposition. And from the Saints' perspective, heavy is the head that wears the crown (or, is the #1 seed with a jerk coach). OK.
But even among those who love seeing the Saints lose ... doesn't anyone from that group sees that there is a competitive integrity issue with non-calls like that? Forget who should've won or lost. Forget Payton's play-calling. Forget previous bad calls during the game. Focus in on that one call, in the moment, in a vacuum.
Either Robey-Coleman's leveling of Tommy Lee Lewis is a legal defensive tactic or not. Though it's called a "judgement call", that's not supposed to mean an "if I feel like it" call. Or an "I want the game called loose" call. It's supposed to mean that a given rule won't always be obvious to enforce ... there will be a spectrum of outcomes and there will be indistinct areas therein. However -- calls on the "obvious" edge of the spectrum have to be made, every time. You can't fall back on "judgement call" in a case like that one. That looks horrible, and the what-ifs write themselves -- hey that ref took cash from a gambler, but who'll ever know? It was just a "judgement call", after all.
Isn't the integrity of the game above Sean Payton getting his, or Vikings fans having schadenfreude for 2009?
Yeah, I understand. It's fun to see a hated team and an arrogant coach get jobbed. Get what's coming to them. Wouldn't expect less from Vikings, Falcons, Eagles, Panthers fans, etc. You guys are the faithful opposition. And from the Saints' perspective, heavy is the head that wears the crown (or, is the #1 seed with a jerk coach). OK.
But even among those who love seeing the Saints lose ... doesn't anyone from that group sees that there is a competitive integrity issue with non-calls like that? Forget who should've won or lost. Forget Payton's play-calling. Forget previous bad calls during the game. Focus in on that one call, in the moment, in a vacuum.
Either Robey-Coleman's leveling of Tommy Lee Lewis is a legal defensive tactic or not. Though it's called a "judgement call", that's not supposed to mean an "if I feel like it" call. Or an "I want the game called loose" call. It's supposed to mean that a given rule won't always be obvious to enforce ... there will be a spectrum of outcomes and there will be indistinct areas therein. However -- calls on the "obvious" edge of the spectrum have to be made, every time. You can't fall back on "judgement call" in a case like that one. That looks horrible, and the what-ifs write themselves -- hey that ref took cash from a gambler, but who'll ever know? It was just a "judgement call", after all.
Isn't the integrity of the game above Sean Payton getting his, or Vikings fans having schadenfreude for 2009?