What a night in Seattle. The Seahawks. The Lions. The punch. The bat. And the shocking return of the replacement refs.
Those clowns were back in the house last night, right? Had to be, right? Because about 10 feet from the scene of the original crime, the refs dropped a sequel to the Fail Mary right in the Lions’s faces. The Lions just got jammed by the referees. Again. And Seattle just got over. Again.
To recap. Calvin Johnson is about to go in for the potential game-winning score, only to have Kam Chancellor make a play that maybe no other safety in the game can make, punching the ball out of Megatron’s hands. Then, Seattle linebacker K.J. Wright, makes the allegedly, heady play by batting the ball out of the end zone for a touchback:
Great play, the Lions do what they do, choke and go into the tank, Seattle dodges the ultimate bullet.
This is usually how it goes with these two teams, right? Detroit will always look for and find a way to lose. And Seattle will make some crazy play late and rip someone’s heart out. EEHHHHHHH!!
Come to find out. You can’t bat the ball like that in the end zone, and Detroit should have gotten it back, first down, at the one… Ahh yes, good ol Rule 12, Section 4, Article 1b.
Wright admitted he didn’t know the rule… None of the ESPN announcers knew the rule. 99% of the people watching didn’t know it. But there was one guy who was watching from about 10 feet away – and it’s his job to know it – back judge Gregory Wilson. Either he didn’t know that rule, or he didn’t have the stones to make the right call.
I know this – he didn’t miss it. The guy’s standing there, in perfect position, even squatting down in an athletic stance, staring daggers right at the ball as it careens off Wright’s hand.
It’s like he put on an officiating clinic… right up until the point he swallowed his whistle and jacked up the whole game.
You want jacked up? Check the hot garbage that his boss barfed up after the game. NFL Officiating VP “Mean” Dean Blandino spoke for his back judge “in his judgment, he didn’t feel it was an overt act so he didn’t throw the flag. In looking at the replays, it looked like a bat.”
Just one problem with that explanation, Deano. Wright admitted he did it on purpose.
That it was an intentional, quote, “I wanted to just knock it out of bounds and not try to catch it and fumble it. I was just trying to make a good play for my team.”
Of course, it was overt. He did it on purpose. He admitted as much.
By the way, who, even needed him to admit he did it on purpose?. That was obviously to everyone except the back judge who was right there on the play, and Blandino, who was looking to cover his own backside. That couldn’t have been a more obvious bat if Wright clocked it with an actual baseball bat.
If Blandino really thinks anybody buys that ridiculous spin, that’s an overt act of stupidity.
The officials either didn’t know the rule or didn’t want to make the obvious call; either way, that makes them incompetent.
But that’s why we have replay, right? To ensure, that they get it right. Doesn’t matter how long it takes to review, just as long as they get it right, right? EHHH! Not in this case. That play is not reviewable. So they can’t make it right.
Yeah…You can go ahead and change that rule any time you want. Not that it’s going to make the Lions feel any better. But at least it will prevent someone else from getting jammed as hard as they were.
Of course, this is what happens when you put the ball on the ground on the goal line and then put the game in the hands of the referee. If you’re the Lions, you’re going to get hammered, and if you’re the Seahawks, you’re going to get over.
Enjoy the win, Seattle, just know, you really don’t deserve it.
And Detroit, no use crying about it, it’s not the first time it’s happened to you and it probably won’t be the last.
And it’s not like the league is going to reverse the decision and give you the win. Best you can hope for is an apology, and there’s no guarantee you’ll get that. Consider that another BLACK EYE for the league.
