Questioning NFL’s Horrible Calls Remains Costly

On Sunday night, after being called for a questionable late hit on Jags QB David Garrard, Steelers LB James Harrison had this to say:↵↵⇥“Ridiculous call,” Harrison said of the penalty. “You don’t make a call like that. Unless (the official) might have money on it.”↵↵And the NFL, continuing its firm stance against questioning the horrible calls by the league’s officials, had this to say in return: “Please send us a check for $20,000 made out to the National Football League. Thank you kindly.”↵↵Obviously, the fine of Harrison is to be expected based on what he said, but perhaps there is a larger conspiracy theory at play here. Maybe the NFL has purposefully made its officiating so inept, that the players, coaches, owners, etc. can’t help but bad mouth it in public, thus resulting in a nice big check for the league. Jerry Jones and Sean Peyton both fell into the trap a few weeks ago, and were fined 25K and 15K, respectively.↵

↵↵How else can you explain the horrible calls that continue to go down? I watched four games this week, and two of them had inexcusably awful calls, which were game-changing. In the Redskins-Eagles game, a block in the back flag was inexplicably picked up on DeSean Jackson’s punt return, essentially handing Philly a free TD. And in the Saints-Vikings game, there was a grab and twist of Reggie Bush’s facemask on a play in which he fumbled that wasn’t called. The result was a loss of possession for New Orleans. ↵

↵↵Think about it, maaaan. It’s totally a conspiracy. Except for anything bad that happens to the Raiders. That’s just karma. ↵

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