Are We Experts? No, But We Play Them On TV...and Radio, Too!

I know that the rules for football and baseball are lengthy and generally a dull read, unless you are really into dull reads. Yet, I fail to understand how the "experts" on TV and radio can continually fail to understand the rules of the sport they are supposed to be analyzing or broadcasting. There are obviously obscure rules that someone like Slut would know and could probably quote verbatim, but the rules regarding catches, time outs, etc. should be understood by all "experts". Right?

Listening to the Westwood One broadcast of the NFC Championship Game between the Cardinals and Eagles yesterday, I hear Mark Malone berating the Cardinals for calling a timeout with about one minute remaining in the first half. The Cardinals were driving after an ill-advised late hit by the Eagles and Anquan Boldin seemed to catch a deflected pass of an Eagles' defender. Arizona called a timeout to stop the clock. Mark Malone proceeds to berate the Cardinals for calling the timeout because the catch was near the ground and he felt they should have tried to run a quick play before the officials chose to review the play instead of giving the officials more time to consider it.

I can understand if Malone wants to rip them for taking the timeout without at least trying to do a quick snap before the officials decide to review the play. However, the Arizona player or coach may not have realized that the catch might have touched the ground and since it was a 31-yard completion, needed to stop the clock so too much time did not run off. I can't blame them for that, but if Malone wants to that is fine. What I did take offense too was Malone's understanding of timeouts and official's reviews.

The officials did review the play and ruled that the ball did touch the ground before the player had control and was ruled incomplete. As Malone delivers a scathing diatribe on the Cardinals for calling the timeout and wasting a timeout due to the officials' review, the official is heard stating that since the play was reviewed and the pass was ruled incomplete, the Cardinals would not be charged a timeout. Meanwhile, Malone is still ranting, then pauses as he either finally understands the officials ruling, or the producer tells him how much of an idiot he is, then backpedals on his rant now that Arizona did not lose a timeout. The funny part is his partners in the booth either let him ramble on and hang himself or were just as ignorant of the rule as he was. I had to laugh hard at that one.

I am definitely not an expert, but I knew this rule from a previous game, so I understood that if the officials decided to review the play, the Cardinals would not be charged for their timeout since the officials would have had to stop the clock for the review. So how come Malone and other experts do not know these rules? I would wonder why the NFL does not have some sort of seminar for broadcasters to go over the rules and other topics, but most of them would probably just sleep through the seminars or skip it because they are already experts on the sport. Yeah, right.

We've seen way too many instances of the people who should know better, actually don't. Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot we can do about it other than write about it here and hope that the powers that be realize the fucktards they have on their staffs and do something about it.

Anyways, congratulations to the Arizona Cardinals to finally making it to a Super Bowl! The Cardinals were my favorite team growing up before the Colts came to town in '84. I am happy to see them finally do something other than suck. Good luck to them in Super Bowl XLIII!