NFL Degeneration Finally Being Noticed

There was a  lot of discussion on Monday morning by Mike and Mike on ESPN about the ending of the Steelers' game last night, as well as the huge discrepancy in penalties called.

The Steelers were flagged 13 times for 115 yards vs. the Chargers, two penalties for five yards, and one of those flags coming on the last play of the game in order to nullify yet another Steeler TD.

According to Mike and Mike, it turns out there was over $100M bet on that game in Vegas. The money was over 2:1 for the Steelers, who were favored by five points. So, removing that last Steeler touchdown resulted in a $64M swing in favor of the bookies last night. 

Golic made the interesting point that if something this flagrant took place in the NBA, they would be launching a congressional investigation, and he is right. This situation continues to draw a great deal of media attention today.

But it was even worse than that.

The Steelers had an earlier TD called back for the type of holding call that could legitimately be made on every play, and the Chargers' only TD resulted from a pass interference call on Taylor that CBS commentator Phil Simms observed shouldn't have been called at all, but that Taylor had position and if the call is made, it should have been against the receiver. 

Forget the issue that the ball wasn't catchable anyway. The Steelers had over 36 minutes in time of possession, a 100-yard rusher, a 100-yard receiver, and over 300 yards passing from Big Ben. Yet, they could not score a single TD the entire game??? 

They did have two called back. The Steelers had one drive after another stalled out as the result of ticky-tacky penalties that negated nice gains, creating 3rd-and-long situations when they would have had 1st-and-10 situations. Three calls on Hines Ward alone and four on the special teams. The special-team calls resulted in the Steelers constantly starting from inside their 20, while SD was being set up near midfield all evening.

This situation continues to draw a great deal of media attention today. The direction the NFL is heading clearly has been drifting into the NBA-type toilet over the past few years, and they are getting so flagrant at this point that it is finally starting to attract some well-deserved attention from the media. 

Sports writers are finally starting to notice disparities that have been blatantly obvious for some time. Last night was the most flagrant game fixing since the Steelers/Colts playoff game when they simply disallowed an obvious, late fourth-quarter interception by Troy Polamalu in a blatant attempt to keep their big money draw, Peyton Manning, active for a Super Bowl appearance.