In the Pitts
Twenty bucks is a drop in the bucket compared to the 66 million dollars that went back to the sportsbooks in the officiating debacle that transpired Sunday afternoon.
I am over it. I have accepted the bad beat and moved on. Besides, it was only a twenty dollar bill.
But for the gentlemen (and women) who had more at stake on the outcome of the game - dinner that night, fuel for an empty gas tank or next month's rent - I can understand if animosity remains at a high level.
The call the officiating crew made at the closing of the Steelers 11-10 victory over the Chargers shifted the universal balance of winners and losers in the realm of sports betting.
In the waning seconds of the snowy showdown San Diego desperately attempted to run a hook-and-ladder play, but the Chargers plans were thwarted when Pittsburgh's all-world safety Troy Polamalu scooped up an errant toss and scampered into the endzone for a touchdown. Scoreboard flashes, 17-10, teams run off the field...game over.
Then the infamous referee huddle began to form. The studious bunch eventually came to the conclusion that there was an illegal forward pass that should have ended the play. The final score was changed back to 11-10 and the game was now officially over.
At this point millions of dollars exchanged hands and the benefactors felt like they were just robbed at gunpoint. They knew the touchdown should have counted, the players and coaches on the sidelines knew it should have counted and even the commentators in the booth knew it should have counted.
And eventually head referee Scott Green came to terms and admitted the Steelers score should have counted. After a barrage of questions from reporters he responded by saying, "We should have let the play go through in the end, yes."
The upheaval was of seismic proportions.
Changing the right call to a wrong one is bad enough. But then coming out and relaying the fact that the call was correct on the first attempt, but was changed makes it that much more unbearable.
You could hear the victims across the country screaming this wasn't the National Football League - it was the National Fixed League!
And to their defense, it was easy to trace back through the events of the game and realize why these blue-collar patrons called for an extensive investigation regarding the integrity of the league and its officials.
Before Jeff Reed booted the game-winning field goal, a Steelers touchdown run was called back for offensive holding on receiver Hines Ward. Offensive holding on a receiver is rarely called (and replay showed it wasn't much of a hold), but the alarming angle was that it Hines' third holding infraction of the day. He is a wide receiver, not an offensive lineman.
The other peculiar happenstance, besides the botched called at the end of the game, was the total number of penalties doled out to each team. Pittsburgh witnessed the yellow flag on the field against their favor 13 times for 115 yards while the Chargers were called for an infraction only twice for five yards. Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin was questioned in his postgame interview about the disparity in penalties and he replied by saying he had never seen anything like it.
I am not saying the game was fixed, and I don't think anyone can claim without a doubt it was. The matter of fact is that someone has to win and someone has to lose in this wonderful world of gambling. Unfortunately the losers in this outcome suffered an excruciating misfortune.
But this anomaly should not discourage anyone from having a little fun on the weekends and making a few wagers. So get back on the saddle, peruse the card and see if you can find a winner. And may the gambling gods be with you.
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