The Big Picture: Bets and Fantasy Game Should Have an Impact on the NFL

Whether you agree with gambling or not, you’ve got to admit that all bets that people make should be made fairly.

With that in mind, people who bet on the Pittsburgh Steelers last weekend in the spread have a reason to be upset, as do the many people who have Pittsburgh’s smash-mouth defense on their fantasy teams.

On the last play of the game, Steeler defensive back Troy Polamalu picked up a San Diego lateral and ran it in for a touchdown, giving the Steelers a 17-10 advantage at the end of regulation. However, after reviewing the play, the referees determined that there was an illegal forward pass that negated the touchdown run. The game officially ended with Pittsburgh holding onto an 11-10 victory.

The referees later said that an error may have been made in the reviewing of the tapes.

While the touchdown may not have made a difference in the outcome of the football game, it definitely impacted sports bets around the country. Since the Steelers were -5 in the spread, sports fans picking San Diego in the spread won their bets.

Anyone who as ever heard me debate reviewing plays knows that I am all for it. I disagree greatly with Tim Kurkjian, one of my favorite ESPN analysts, on this topic. Kurkjian believes, in the case of baseball, human error is part of the nostalgia of the sport.

I couldn’t beg to differ more. The reason reviews were placed into football was that it would provide fairness to the game. While some say human error is part of the game, I think morality and fairness should be something that is very important, and when we have the technology to provide these two things, we should do it.

That being said, review is only a viable option to add fairness to the game if the officiating crew is competent enough to make a good call. That was certainly not the case here.

There were clearly no forward laterals on this play and in all likelihood, the referee in charge may have figured that the play had no impact on the game and considering the freezing temperatures, he may have thought it best to speed the game along.

He didn’t take into account, though, that someone may have bet thousands of dollars on this game. While it is unlikely, it is a harsh reality that some people do have a gambling problem. If they do, this bet probably isn’t the real issue of their life, but financially it very well could be.