The rules exist to create equity.
This is why the 10-second runoff at the end of the Falcons-Lions game was totally fair
The correct call would have resulted in the end of the game.
That is the ultimate philosophy behind every single rule in any sport at any level. A group of people have decided that a rule needs to exist so that someone doesn’t gain an “unfair” advantage.
That’s what was at play when the game officials ran 10 seconds off of the clock at the end of Sunday’s game between the Atlanta Falcons and the Detroit Lions.
This is why that 10-second runoff was equitable.
If you doubt it, here is the NFL’s rule 4.7.4:
If a replay review inside of one minute of either half results in the on-field ruling being reversed and the correct ruling would not have stopped the game clock, then the officials will run 10 seconds off the game clock before permitting the ball to be put in play on the ready-for-play signal.
Sorry Lions fans, it’s black-and-white. It’s as though the officials got the ruling correct on the field. That’s it. Sorry.
The call on the field for the 1-yard Golden Tate reception was a touchdown. The clocked stopped, showing less than 10 seconds left on the game clock.
The problem is, the ruling on the field was incorrect. It wasn’t a touchdown. Tate was tackled in the field of play short of the goal line. At any level of football, if that is the correct call on the field, the clock keeps running. Since the Lions had zero timeouts, there was no way for the team to stop the clock until the following snap.
When thinking about the “equity” of the rule, does anyone think that a play inbounds could end, the game officials could get the ball into position for the next snap, the offensive team could get into position and be still for one second for the next snap, and the offensive team could snap the ball all in less than 10 SECONDS?
That’s simply not going to happen much of the time. The NFL competition committee has obviously agreed, as have the owners ... including the owner of the Lions.
Sorry, but Superman and the Flash aren’t generally available to execute the dead-ball administration of NFL games.
This is why the 10-second runoff exists. The Lions stopped the clock on what was an incorrect call — a touchdown. If the correct call had been made on the field, the clock would have continued to run and the game clock would have hit 0:00 before the next snap.
None of this is to cast aspersions on the officials. In real time they made the best call they could make on the field. It happened to be incorrect, and this is why the NFL has unlimited reviews of calls in the final two minutes of each half.
It was a heartbreaking way for the Lions to lose the game, no doubt. But it was absolutely the right call, and the philosophy behind the rule was intelligently adopted by all the 32 NFL owners.
Cyd Zeigler is a high school and college football official in Los Angeles. He is also the co-editor of SBNation’s Outsports.com.
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