pennstate10

Hey is this a blindside block on the guy blocking Watt? hes directly facing his own end zone. Or the other tackle. He doing the same thing. still can’t believe the ahole ref called this against Ford.

Players no longer have to take a knee to down the ball. In victory formation a QB can simply take the snap and toss the ball to the official.

Ahh, if you want to donate to charity, try the Leukemia and Lymphoma society. Or Childrens Hospital.

As a Bills fan, I'm not sure I like these answers by McD or Beane. Based on your quote, Beane is saying he disagrees, but doesnt want to be fined. As a Bills fan, I want him to go to the mat. If he pays a 10-50-100,000 fine, I dont care. I really dont care if Beane makes $4.0 million/yr or $3.9 million. I'm pretty sure most Bills fans making $70K /year agree with me. I want him to stick up for my team, as well as whats right. Now, If he's concerned that this will be a negative for Bills rulings going forward, thats a different issue. But also a problem.

I'm with you here. Men in Black. Questions: 1) How come, in 40 yrs of watching NFL, I've never before seen or heard of these guys? 2) Why are there 4 of them? If they're meant as substitutes in case of emergency, are we expecting 4 guys to have heart attacks in the same game? 3) If the NFL selects their very best refs for the games, based on season-long "grades", then it stand to reason that these "substitute refs" arent as good as the on-field refs. So why did the head umpire (Tony Corente) defer to them? 4) How did the network guys know who the men in black were, and their role, immediately? Why did the parrot (old-time ref) on the network team immediately know the party-line--"it was just common sense, and common sense prevailed"? Conclusions: -- I dont know. You put everything together, and the most logical explanation is someone from the NFL office told the men in black to tell Corente to change his call. And tell the network guys that this was the party line. -- I find this very disappointing. I always thought that the officials, while often incompetent and possibly subconsciously biased, were honest. Now I'm not so sure. -- Corente, with 20+ years of experience, and graded as a top ref, clearly made a call based on his understanding of the rules. And then he changes his mind in 2-3 minutes? Something is fishy here. Prediction: -- The "common sense" mantra will come back to bite the NFL.

College Football doesn’t have a Rooney rule, but the number of black coaches has increased. For instance Penn State has a black head coach. And over half of PSU assistant coaches are black also. I think it takes time. I know there are exceptions but head coaches Typically have to grind and grind as assistants for 15-20 yrs before they get a shot at a head coaching position. I think rather than a Rooney rule, increasing opportunities as interns and volunteer assistant position coaches is the way to go. These guys will pay their dues and learn coaching (which, to be clear, is MUCH different than playing) from the bottom up. In addition, they will have developed the relationships and networks that will be necessary for a head guy to successfully recruit his staff of assistants.

I think Bills outsmarted themselves here. as they approached the redzone, they were taking their time, no hurry at all. the logic being they wanted to burn clock before they scored, so Houston wouldn’t have time to score. But they played it too cute, and ended up wasting one of their three redzone downs clicking the ball. Primary goal should have been TD and don’t worry if Houston has 90 vs 30 sec to come back and try to score.

So, I'm guessing this will be a bit controversial, but here goes. The US population is, roughly, 60% white, 10 % Latino, 10% black, 10% Asian, 10 % other. But NFL cornerbacks are 0 % white, almost 100% black. Should there be a Rooney rule for white cornerbacks? Where each team has to play at least one white CB in the preseason, give him a chance? or should the best players play, regardless of race or ethnic background? And should that same philosophy be applied to coaches. The best coaches coach, regardless of race etc?

Im not saying that you're a fibber, but I'm not sure this is entirely correct. Can you provide a link?

I’m interested to see if this topic comes up in McD press conference today. McD seems like an honest and introspective guy. Wouldn’t surprise me if he says if he had it to do again, he would have challenged the call, or demanded a clear explanation.

I think you missed my point. The ref signaled TD. I've never seen a returner catch the ball, toss it to official, have official refuse to catch ball, have ball drop to ground, and kicking team recover, and have ref signal TD. You really have seen all of these components previously? Really? Can you cite a single example? Again, the key is the ref signaling TD. If the ref didnt signal TD, we wouldnt be having this discussion. But once the TD is signaled, the ref is stating he's enforcing the rules. To now reverse that based on a whim is the problem. In terms of statutory construction, I think the rules are abundantly clear. But other people, on this board, and in the NFL men in black office, would seem to think otherwise. Thus the search for precedents.

This is exactly right. I said at the time that McD should challenge that. They might say it isnt challengeable, but at least that would have made them think a bit more. Given the NFL more time to realize that theyre opening a huge Pandoras box.

Yeah, we basically agree. But please read what I wrote once more. "By that, I mean a KO returner not signaling fair catch, catching a ball in the end zone, not taking a knee, tossing the ball to the ref, followed by the kicking team recovering ball, and ref signalinig TD." I bolded the pertinent part. this is truly unprecedented. Law is the field where precedence is most commonly searched and cited. There was a dispute about rule interpretation. The men in black had a different interpretation than the ref on the field. I think it does make some sense to look for precedents. Still not sure it should be safety or TD. Interesting, I saw a replay. Early in the discussion, one of the striped refs walk in and just drops a flag. Not throwing at at a foul (like coach coming off the bench) but just a drop. Like you see them do when they watch a replay and decide there should be a grounding call. That makes me think that they re-interpreted the play as an illegal forward pass, but then the men in black convinced them otherwise.

Ah, I'd give partial credit for this despicable tweet to Booger "the Eater" McFarland-- Saying Ford was selfish for this penalty. Thats simply wrong. Ford wasnt selfish, he was trying to play the game. The official, for some assinine reason, decided he needed attention, and needed to inteject himself into the game. It was a horrible call. Horrible timing. And, according to Mike Periera, simply wrong.

Sorry dude, you're simply wrong. 1) A safe sign is not a fair catch sign. Read the rules. 2) He didnt let the ball bounce in the endzone. By rule, that is a touchback. He caught the F@#$##in ball. That is the entire reason for this discussion. Wake up. Or go to a Trump rally. Your call.

"safe" sign is a signal to blockers. Its NOT the same as a fair catch sign. You can argue that it is, but there is no support for this in the rules whatsoever.

thats a good question. I think a mistake on McD's part. You can bet if it happened to Bellichek, he's running out to show the refs the rule as written in the rule book.

You mean this rule? Which doesnt use the word "intent"? "A member of the team attempting to catch a punt or kickoff may signal for a fair catch. To request a fair catch, the receiver must raise one arm fully above their head and wave it from side to side while the ball is in flight. " Fing maroon Anyone with common sense knows that the NFL just opened a huge Pandoras Box with their "common sense" over-ruling, you know, the actual RULES. This is actually a big deal.

Two points here: 1) The situation in the Bills game was completely unprecedented in the NFL. By that, I mean a KO returner not signaling fair catch, catching a ball in the end zone, not taking a knee, tossing the ball to the ref, followed by the kicking team recovering ball, and ref signalinig TD. That sequence of events is completely unprecedented in the NFL. In other walks of life (law, medicine, science), when one encounters an uprecedented event, most rational people look to precedents from similar (not identical) events. The closest precedent is the SC St/Clemson game this year in college football, where the same sequence of events occurred, and was ruled a TD for the kicking team. The only difference in these two events was that the SC St player tossed the ball backward to the ref, and 1-2 sec after he tossed the ball, had a look of horror on his face as he realized that he F@##$%$ up. 2) Given that this play is unprecedented, I'm unsure whether it should have been a TD or illegal forward pass. A forward pass implies a receiver; there was none here. If a QB is being pulled down by the pass rush, feels the ball coming out, but is able to push it forward, is that a forward pass or a fumble? What about an NFL receiver who catches a pass, runs a few steps and trips over a turf monster, and slams the ball down (slightly forward) in disgust, never begin touched down. Is that a fumble? An illegal forward pass? or is he ruled to have given himself up? I sort of think I've seen that ruled a fumble in the past.

If this happened to the Bills I would have beenpissed also. At the returner for not knowing the rules. Not at at the ref for doing his job and properly administering the rules of the game.

Don't be obtuse. NCAA rules are very similar to NFL youre wrong here on several levels

Google clemson v South Carolina state kickoff TD. This was PRECISELY the same play. And gues what? it was called a TD. Imagine that. Refs following the rules when player makes a stupid mistake.

Sorry Dude, you're one million percent wrong. You cant read my mind,or discern my intent (unlike the menin black). As a Bills fan, if the shoe was on the other foot,I would've. Said "wow, we really dodged a bullet there. That should have be a Texan TD"

refs aren’t human, they make mistakes and overlook violations all the time. Like holding for instance. so I think it likely that a KO returner at some point has caught the ball and tosses it to official and official signals touchback. Although I can’t point to such a play. If, in the Bills game, the official caught the ball and signaled touchback, I don’t anyone would have said anything. BUT , in this game, the official enforced the rule. And then he lost his balls to the men in black. think of it like holding. A common rules violation often not called. But when it is called and confirmed by TV replay, I’ve never seen an official back off after men in black told him the OL didn’t intend to hold there. Never. it was poorly handled by the NFL and we haven’t heard the last of this

I think it's pretty clear that McD, and the rest of the Bills coaching staff (let's not pretend McD made this decision in a vacuum) panicked when they didn't punt on this play. I dont think they they realized yeah with 3 TO left, they could easily get the ball backwith 1:20 or more. I think the Bills need a numbers guy who can instantly tell them this type of info. It it surprises me how poorly NFL teams (not just the Bills) manage time in the last 2 minutes.