Monday, January 20, 2014

Officiating Embarrasses the NFL, Again

That was the best officiating crew the NFL could offer?

San Francisco fans appear to have legitimate reason to gripe about the officiating in Sunday's NFC Championship game. The sequence of plays leading to Seattle taking the lead was set in motion by the running into the punter penalty. If that call had been roughing the punter, as it should have been, San Francisco would have had a first down and Seattle wouldn't have had a short field, which led to the go-ahead touchdown pass to Jermaine Kearse.

A short while later, San Francisco linebacker Navarro Bowman recovered a fumble  — which everybody saw, except for the officials. Seattle retained the ball and kicked a field goal.

Niners' fans also might wonder about what appeared to be a loosely defined, if not generous, space for the so-called tackle box, as in "the quarterback (Russell Wilson) was inside the tackle box, so there was no intentional grounding."  It looked like Wilson got away with a couple of throws that could have been called intentional grounding.

Nobody in the 49ers organization has squawked about the officiating, and it wouldn't help them if they did. But still, that was supposed to be one of the two best officiating crews the NFL could put together. And they were an embarrassment.


What we can expect the next two weeks ...

PEYTON MANNING, RICHARD SHERMAN, PEYTON MANNING, RICHARD SHERMAN, PEYTON MANNING, RICHARD SHERMAN, PEYTON MANNING, RICHARD SHERMAN, PEYTON MANNING, RICHARD SHERMAN, PEYTON MANNING, RICHARD SHERMAN, PEYTON MANNING, RICHARD SHERMAN, PEYTON MANNING, RICHARD SHERMAN, PEYTON MANNING, RICHARD SHERMAN, PEYTON MANNING, RICHARD SHERMAN, PEYTON MANNING, RICHARD SHERMAN, PEYTON MANNING, RICHARD SHERMAN, PEYTON MANNING, RICHARD SHERMAN, PEYTON MANNING, RICHARD SHERMAN, PEYTON MANNING, RICHARD SHERMAN, PEYTON MANNING, RICHARD SHERMAN, PEYTON MANNING, RICHARD SHERMAN, PEYTON MANNING, RICHARD SHERMAN, PEYTON MANNING, RICHARD SHERMAN, PEYTON MANNING, RICHARD SHERMAN, PEYTON MANNING, RICHARD SHERMAN, PEYTON MANNING, RICHARD SHERMAN, PEYTON MANNING, RICHARD SHERMAN, PEYTON MANNING, RICHARD SHERMAN, PEYTON MANNING, RICHARD SHERMAN.

Power to the Peaceful

In recognition of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the entire civil rights movement ...

"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase."
— Martin Luther King, Jr.

"We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies."
— Martin Luther King, Jr. 

For more quotes from Martin Luther King, Jr., visit BrainyQuote.: