COLUMN: 'Picked up Flag Game' gets ugly
Sadly, the legitimacy of the National Football League has been called into question in recent weeks due to an embarrassing display of poor, and perhaps even corrupt officiating during a crucially important playoff game.
Detroit sports fans love to whine in general.
Their chief complaint lately stems from an obviously blown call by referees during the Lions Wild Card round loss to the Dallas Cowboys.
Cowboy linebacker Anthony Hitchens clearly interfered with Detroit tight end Brandon Pettigrew on crucial third down play late in the fourth quarter of what would turn out to be the Lions final game of 2014-15.
The referee closest to the play threw a flag.
First down Detroit, right?
Wrong.
After a mini conference on the field, the officials on the field that day decided to do something that sent Twitter feeds into light speed and caused smoke to come from the ears of the Detroit faithful.
Picking up the flag, the crew had thought better of the decision and ruled it was fourth down. The Lions were forced to punt.
Cowboys Stadium erupted.
Hours before quarterback Tony Romo led Dallas to the game-winning touchdown on the ensuing drive, a report surfaced on the popular sports and pop-culture website Deadspin.
According to the report, the National Football League head of officials Dean Blandino was seen exiting a Cowboys party bus just days before Dallas’ clash with Detroit.
Detroit sports fans were immediately infuriated.
Could this be true? Was the game fixed?
People have long talked about how the Dallas Cowboys are viewed as “America’s team,” and FOX Sports play-by-play commentators Joe Buck and former Dallas quarterback Troy Aikman unapologetically root for the team on the air.
Blandino has since denied that his presence on the party bus had any bearing on the call on the field that afternoon. Yet, he and other NFL officials have acknowledged that there were several “blown” calls during the Lions/Cowboys game.
Here is the bottom line: Referees are human beings, and human beings make mistakes.
But what happened that afternoon in Dallas, and the controversy that surrounds the league in the days that followed is embarrassing for football fans around the world.
The image of the NFL was significantly hurt by the Ray Rice domestic violence saga, now the leagues issues are on the field.
In what has been perhaps the worst year in NFL PR history, the fans have been ignored, deceived and misrepresented regarding issues off the field.
And in Detroit’s showdown with Dallas, the worst possible thing that could happen to a group of sports fans transpired.
They were cheated.
