Bye-Week Grievance Airing

The bye week is a great time for bloggers to focus on issues not directly concerning the team they cover.  The issue that I intend to vent on, was one that I truly wanted to address immediately following Buffalo’s week 3 win over Oakland.  However, I thought the upcoming bye week would be a more opportune time.

Imagine you are at an NFL game, cheering on your favorite team.  In fact, I’m sure many of you have encountered this experience, including the 70,000+ that were also at the game I am referencing.  Buffalo had just called a time-out with less than 5 seconds remaining on the clock, and they were obviously preparing to send out the field goal unit to attempt the potential game winning kick.  However, Oakland still had 2 time-outs remaining, and of course my thought was that they would use one to “ice” the kicker.  Unfortunately, as many of you know, more often than not, the time-out is called not before the players have lined up, but just before the snap of the football.

So, as you may have guessed, I was fully expecting the aforementioned scenario to play out.  In fact, I was not even watching the play; I was watching Kiffin along the sidelines standing next to an official.  Bear in mind, I was sitting in the upper levels, but I was sure that I saw Kiffin try to get the TO just prior to the snap of the ball.  Now, with the crowd going nuts, there was no way I was going to hear a whistle even if there was one.  In any event, Lindell buried the kick, and almost everyone around me was going nuts.  I though, was skeptical, waiting almost 10 seconds to be sure that the kick was going to count, and that the Bills had won the game.

What is the point of this story?  Simple.  While the fact that coaches will call time-outs legally just prior to the snap of the ball may be annoying to the players, it is wildly unfair to those fans in attendance, who want to enjoy the biggest plays of the game without having to wonder whether or not it is going to count.  In some ways I felt cheated after the game had ended, and I’m sure that I wasn’t the only one.  On television, it is clear what is taking place in the game, but at the stadium, in all the confusion, it is often difficult to discern what exactly is happening on the field - especially in situations such as that. 

Ultimately, I would like for the NFL to re-visit this issue in the off-season, and perhaps make it illegal to call a time-out once the kicker has started his backward motion while moving into position.  This would be a simple rule to enforce, and I think you would find that time-outs to “ice” the kicker would actually drop in prevalence overall.

What are your thoughts?

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