Want a more recent example? “The NFL acknowledged that the officials missed a roughing-the-passer penalty against the New Orleans Saints on the play during Sunday’s NFC title game on which Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre was injured,” The Washington Post explained after this season’s NFC Championship game. “We just missed it,” the NFL’s vice president of officiating told reporters.
And you know what? That’s going to happen.
Conservatives understand that people will make mistakes. Receivers will drop perfectly thrown passes. Running backs will fumble in the open field. Officials will miss a call now and again. Liberals may believe it’s possible to call a game perfectly if we get just the right amount of oversight. For similar reasons, they also believe the government ought to provide everybody’s health care.
Conservatives recognize that people will make mistakes, but that the best place to decide a game is on the field, not in the replay booth.
The other fix should be easier to implement. The NFL goes out of its way to protect quarterbacks. For example, it allows them to throw the ball away if they’re “outside the tackle box.” In the real world, QBs are almost never called for “intentional grounding,” when they throw the ball away to avoid being sacked.
This supposedly protects quarterbacks, but it actually punishes defenses when they’ve done their job exceptionally well. Either through excellent coverage or a daring blitz, they’ve managed to put someone in position to bring the QB down for a loss. Instead, he’s allowed to throw the ball away, avoiding the hit (fine -- nobody wants to see him get injured) but also avoiding the loss of yardage that should come from the defense’s sack.
Let’s split the difference. Sure, let him toss the ball out of bounds. But enforce the grounding penalty by moving the line of scrimmage back to where he threw it from. Conservatives support equality of opportunity, rather than demanding equality of outcome. Actually enforcing the grounding penalty would give the defense the same opportunity to make a big play that the QB enjoys every time he drops back.
The NFL did the right thing by moving its Pro Bowl to the week before the Super Bowl, instead of the week after. It also should move the big game to Saturday night instead of Sunday, so younger viewers can stay up and watch.
Enjoy the game, and the ads. And remember: a more conservative game would actually be more fun to watch.