Archive for the 'Football News' Category
There have been a lot of NFL football championships over the years that haven’t lived up to the hype of “Super Bowl”. But, whether you are a Cardinal fan or a Steeler fan, I think you will have to agree that this years game, at least the fourth quarter, was one of the most exciting in recent years.
It looked like the Cardinals wern’t going to be able to make a game out of it, partly because the Steeler defense had totally shut down Larry Fitzgerald. The one thing about a player like Fitzgerald, though, it’s difficult to contain him for an entire game, and the Steelers couldn’t. Fitzgerald had very little impact on the game until the fourth quarter, but what a fourth quarter he had.
Whether you’re a Fitzgerald fan, or not, you have to appreciate how great his first touchdown catch was. To make that catch was impressive, but to hold onto it was just as impressive, because the Steeler defender hand his hand right in there trying to knock the ball out. His second touchdown was impressive, not for the catch, but for the fact he was able to break into the open and then pull away from the defenders.
The Cardinals made a great comeback, but the catch by Holmes, which was also a great catch, kept them from having the perfect end to a great season. Condolences to the Cardinals and congratulation to the Steelers.
Although I have liked the Steelers for years, I grew up a Cardinal fan, which was when they were still in St. Louis, so I was rooting for the Cardinals.
Between two teams, only one of which sports enthusiasts predicted ‘could’ make it to the Super Bowl, the 2009 Super Bowl game between Arizona and Pittsburgh will no doubt be one to remember. The Arizona Cardinals are a team who have never been to the Super Bowl, but lead by Super Bowl veteran and MVP Kurt Warner, it’s no doubt possible they could make it happen. The Pittsburgh Steelers, under the leadership of Ben Roethlisberger, have already won a Super Bowl in recent years, and head into the 2009 Bowl a heavy favorite. However, in every playoff game thus far the Arizona Cardinals have gone in as underdogs and come out as clear victors. The team is on fire, and those who bet on them to lose initially would be wise to not count them out.
This week the teams are resting up, working out, preparing their football equipment and reviewing tapes about the opposing team. The 2009 Super Bowl will be one talked about for years to come
Is it time the NCAA abolished the instant replay system, or at least change it to make it work better? In the past 2 or 3 years I have seen the instant replay officials make so many horrible calls that it makes you wonder what instant replay they are watching. I thought instant replay was supposed to correct bad calls made by the officials on the field, but there has been many times when the bad calls have just moved from the field to the replay booth.
I think the instant replay officials are trying to get every call perfect, but I don’t think that was it’s intended purpose. I always thought the purpose of the instant replay was to eliminate those calls that were obviously wrong. In fact, I’ve heard it said many times that there has to be indisputable video evidence to overturn the call that was made on the field. That doesn’t seem to be what has been happening. In my opinion, the replay official should be able to tell if a call was obviously wrong after seeing each view of the instant replay one time. I’m not saying they shouldn’t be able to look at the replays more than once, but if they keep looking at the replays over and over to determine whether a player’s foot is touching the out of bounds line or not is ridiculous.
I’m not an Oklahoma fan, but the blown call on the onside kick in the 2006 Oregon game was about the worst I have ever seen. In the first place, the ball was touched by an Oregon player before it went ten yards, which is a penalty. Second, an Oklahoma player picked the ball up of the ground and was holding it when the officials declared it was Oregon’s ball. How can the officials determine that a team has recovered a fumble when no one on that team has the ball. That call cost Oklahoma the game. I’m sure it was no consolation to Oklahoma fans, but those officials received a one game suspension because of that call.
I am not opposed to using instant replay, but we need to rethink how it is being used. The instant replay officials need to quickly determine whether a call on the field was right or wrong. If the replay is not conclusive, they should say that and let the play stand as called.
I hope in the future we can see an instant replay system that truly reduces the number of missed calls on the field and in doing so will reduce the amount of controversy. In the end all I want is to see the team that deserves to win the game, actually win the game.
We’ll just have to wait and see but I am hopeful the NCAA will make the system better in the future.