Making Good Things "Better"

Somebody somewhere is always wanting to fuck with a good thing. Always wanting to make something better, when there was never anything wrong with it to begin with. Football is the best example I can think of.

When they started the Instant Replay years back, people bitched and moaned about what is probably the one example of an improvement that I can think of. So they dropped it for awhile, but within a year or two it was brought back. Now, I like this one concept, for the simple fact it rules out the potential for human error,and more importantly, the possibility of corruption.

An ump on the field makes a bad call, or the team that is on the receiving end of the call thinks it is anyway, and so they demand a review. If the play stands, then the team that initiates the review is charged with a timeout. As timeouts can be vital, this has the effect of discouraging frivolous challenges. If, however, the play is overturned, the team is not charged, as well they should not be.

Like I said, this is an example of a good excpetion to the changes that have been made over the years.

However, there is one in particular that makes me want to scream. And, sometimes, I do. Today, in fact, I nearly did, when my Bengals fell behind the oppossing Carolina Panthers, who scored a touchdown that should never have been called. But ah, those rule changes again.

You see, the Panther team player in question, a receiver whose name I can not remember, caught the ball, and was brought down just outside the end zone, but in the process of going down, strethed out his arms and just barely, barely touched the football to the barest edge of the line that marks the end zone, while the players knees went down clearly outisde the end zone, as did the rest of him. The touchdown was challenged by the Bengals manager, to no avail. They were charged with a timeout, and the touchdown ruled on the field stood. Fuck instant replay.

But no, not really. Because, actually, technically, the call was a correct one. The player barely did touch the football to the barest edge of the end zone line before his knees hit the ground, which was the only thing really in question.

So what was the reason for this? Well, somewhere along the way during a bad ratings year, somebody came up with the bright idea that more people would watch football more if there was more scoring, higher scores. And so, this new and to me ignorant rule was instituted.

Look, football was never meant to be a high scoring game. The best football games of years past had amazingly low scores. 3-0. 7-6. 10-7. As far as I'm concerned anytime both teams scores more than twenty points in a game, what you are watching is two teams engaging in an offensive race, in a game the high scores of which is not necessarrilly an accurate reflection of the skill and ability of their offenses so much as it is a pretty sure bet that both teams have shitty fucking defensive squads.

Well, the Bengals went on to win this game 17-14, so they are now at 3-2. They are even better this year than they were last year. With the exception of their last game, they haven't had near as many penalties on average per game. Plus, despite the fact that some of the more seasoned players on the offensive line are out with injuries, the second stringers came through nicely in the second half, after an uncertain and nerve-wracking first half.

One Bengal committed a penalty in the second half. A face mask, a most obviously stupid penalty which I almost believe should be punished by chopping off the hands. It was a fifteen yard first down advance for Carolina in the last four minutes of the game, putting them in positon to either tie the game and send it into overtime, or win it. Luckily, a Bengals corner back, I think, intercepted the Panthers quarterbacks pass in the end zone. Game fucking over.

But, like I said, save for this ignorant rule change, it shouldn't have even been this close.