It's official! (no pun intended) We got our "oops, we messed up" letter from the NFL Head of Officiating.KIRKLAND, Wash. (AP) - The Seahawks received rare word from the NFL that referee Larry Nemmers erred Sunday on the New York Giants' two touchdowns in Seattle's 24-21 overtime victory.
"I had a conversation with the league, and there were mistakes that were made, which we felt at the time," said Seattle coach Mike Holmgren, one of eight men on the NFL competition committee that oversees rules and game operations.
The NFL said touchdown catches made by Jeremy Shockey and Amani Toomer shouldn't have been ruled completions.
Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?
Other than that, Mrs. Kennedy, did you enjoy the parade?
Can you imagine how incredibly pissed we would be if (god forbid) Matt or Shaun got hurt in OT of a game that should have been won by us in regulation? What would the Refs do for us then? Hold Eli and Tiki out of the next game?
I've been on record in the forums saying that it's understandable why these plays were initially called TDs when viewed at game speed, but when you look at the replays, even without my Seahawks goggles, it's obvious that Shockey never got the second foot down, and Toomer's first foot slid out before his second foot tapped down.
Click the picture or external link to read the whole story on Sportsline.com
ADP found this first...er-erm (really, who cares?...ok maybe I do a LITTLE)
ReplyDeleteWow...I knew the Shockey one was crap, even after the replay...for the Toomer one, I said 'inconclusive' to myself after watching the replays...we all know refs make mistakes...but we're always the ones that end up with apology letters
Luckily we won that game...and all we get to endure this week is the perennial weekly bashing of our team in the media...we were probably going to get that anyways
Refs aren't perfect...but your job is to be PERFECT...anything less, and you failed...that human crap doesn't work for me, when its a blatant thing
I wasn't sure about the Toomer catch but i knew for sure i could have put my life on the line that Shockey got drilled and the ball came out before his second foot hit the floor
ReplyDeletePosted by o-meezy
I was certain that both were no catches. But nobody asked me. Whattya bet the east coast media ignores this information, and continues to say the 'Hawks got lucky. Let's see, the first TD was on 3rd and long, so assumin Feely makes a FG instead that's four more points off their score... And who knows if they woulda got a TD on the Toomer phantom drive or not...
ReplyDeleteEither way, we had the game won in regulation, so piss off to all those who bitch about us getting lucky.
Posted by check
Just curious, in recent years how many of these "rare" letters of apology have we gotten?
ReplyDeleteIf the point of replay is to get calls right, then on two reviewed calls there should not be letters sent out.
Here's what the NFL needs to do. Have the replay system the way it is. Have a group of officials and rule book junkies in a room in New York. Have the geek squad on conference call for every challenge in the NFL. They do this in hockey, they can do it in the NFL.
Why not have more than one official look at the replay? Maybe the back judge should go under the hood on those TDs?
I'm trying not to get mad about this, but when 15 of their points should have been taken off the board , that means we owned them. There would be no doubt about our legitimacy, no doubt which team is best in the NFC.
Memo to the NFL: Right on Monday and right on Sunday are two entirely different things, and a letter doesn't equalize anything.
One other thing to add. My dad used to coach high school girls' basketball. He has a theory that when a team gets a favorable call "the ball knows"
ReplyDeleteBasically, teams that get screwed by officials will get it back.
Everytime the ball left Jay Feeley's foot it "knew" the Seahawks got screwed.
Call it vengence from the football gods, or just that "the ball knows"
Alan - what a GREAT idea.
ReplyDeleteI'm always amazed that a game featuring about 2 billion dollars in salary between coaches and players on the field is decided by an out-of-breath official looking at a 5 inch video monitor in a sideline peep-show booth.
Why not have a room full of these junkies sitting in front of a Times Square sized high-def monitor?
The would review ALL calls in all games. The chances of two games reviewing a play at the same time would be rare, but there would be enough screens and geeks to handle the overflow should it occur.
Every stadium has a mini-medical center with x-ray machines and the whole 9 yards. Why not a state of the art replay room?
Posted by alba
Alan, to answer your question...
ReplyDeletein the last 3 years (including this season)...I have counted 7 or 8 apology letters...and im talking LITERALLY...
the ONLY other apology letter I remember being sent to a different team, was last year, a bad PI call between Washington and Tennessee (cant remember who got the wrong end of that one)
oh, and by the way...thats TWO this season...unless we got one for the Atlanta game during that clear as day fumble Trufant caused at the beginning of the game, at Atlanta's 3 yard line.
Posted by adp
you can tell we're starting to get noticed, whether its in a good way or not...
ReplyDeleteSI put an article up about it...I honestly don't remember ANY other apology letter situation, where the media mentions it outside of Seattle...so this is different
Posted by adp
I have almost every single screwjob taped somehwere, or an article about it in my favorites list...its too big a collection to be a coincidence
ReplyDeleteThe only reason SI has it posted is because it was against the Giants. Screw jobs in Seahawks-Cards games don't get national attention!
ReplyDeletePosted by alba
Thanks. That's high praise coming from the 12SS Knockout Pool chammpion!
ReplyDelete(it's like winning a Heisman trophy or Academy Award, it will be forever linked to your name, and folks will introduce you as "inaugural winner of the 12SS Knock Out Pool, Irish Greg!)
Posted by alba
dude stop...you're making me even more jealous!
ReplyDeletePosted by adp
I wonder how these letters read...
ReplyDeleteDear Seattle Seahawks,
We failed to do our job. Unlike player and coaches that get released or fired at the end of the year, this officiating crew will still be on the field next year. Granted, it will be for games like Arizona-Detroit, but they'll still be there.
We'd love to make it up to you. How about I swing by your place in Manhattan, oops, thought I was writing to the Saints again.
Anyway. Coffee, on us? Seriously.
And wear that low cut dress.
Love,
Tags
BRILLIANT! lol
ReplyDeleteand somewhat likely!?!
Posted by adp
Message to John Clayton, Tom Jackson, John Levesque, Steve Kelly and Peeter King (yes with three e's, because he says the Giants "outplayed" 'us' and ranked them higher on his personal power trip ranking):
ReplyDeleteThe Seahawks are "lucky"? MY BLUE, HAIRY ASS.
The Giants are lucky to score over 20 in this game. It shouldn't have even come down to the misses by "touchy" Feeley.
Go home Giants. Oh, you are home now. Well anyway, just take your teeth that just got kicked in and smile for the Cowboys. They've got the same "We outplayed you in every facet of the game but the score" toothless grin as you do.
Guess what? 490 yards doens't buy you even ONE touchdown. It sure as hell doesn't buy you any field goals. Besides, 68 of those yards occoured in the illegitimate and illegal overtime.
They Cowboys got power ranking and national media love like you do, too. Fluff it up, sew some silk around it and make a pillow. Snuggle with it tonight and enjoy it, because we're running off with your playoff game woman and having a great time with your NFL shared revenue credit cards. Keep the pillow. We'll take the lovely lady.
Posted by Bluefoot
OK, now that I got that out of my system, I have to say that this makes me even more proud of this team.
ReplyDeleteIt's true - In the past, blown calls like these resulted in a loss. But now, our team is so #$&% good that we beat the other NFC contenders, even when the refs spot them two TD's.
I'm also proud of the fact that they never, ever give up. They keep on beleiving and playing their @sses off, and as a result, they create their own opportunities and build their own miracles against all odds.
That's how the 'immaculate reception', the 'music city miracle', and 'some other third thing' all happened. It was because the players DID IT.
and some other third thing
ReplyDeleteLMAO!
Posted by alba
Important note... Phil Luckett should not be allowed in the greater Pacific Northwest... ever. Not for a layover on his way to Iran, not to apologize, not for coffee, fish throwing, grunge festivals or space needle tours. Never ever ever again. This guy just plain sucks.
ReplyDeleteThiel notes why, as does here, number 5, and to slightly disagree with Blue on the MCM, here. Why does this mofo still have a job?
Posted by JoSCh
Point taken, JoSCh. I didn't realize that Luckett was behind the non-call of the MCM!
ReplyDeleteI can't decide if Luckett is the luckiest or un-luckiest referee alive. He's lucky to be employed, but the way he gets in the middle of the contreversies, you'd think he lived in a house with 13 black cats, a ladder over every doorway, and a clumsy gnome juggling pocket mirrors in his closet.
How is the NFL so desperate for refs that this guy is not refereeing for the XFL?
"I have to agree with you guys - Shockey's was definitely not a catch, but the replays on Tumor weren't enough to overturn the TD call. "
ReplyDeleteTrue, but it should not have been called a TD initially. After the "catch", the refs looked at each other, and discussed it for some time, then decided to call it a TD and let the replay booth look at it. Had it been the Seahawks "catch", they would have ruled it out of bounds and let the replay booth look at it. That is the fundamental difference between the Seahawks and virtually every other team in the NFL.
The fact that the 'Hawks won despite such obvious bias is proof of how good this team really is. Those biased calls (or non-calls, or clock screw-ups) have ruined past Seahawk seasons. But not this one. Now the team has the right guys and the right attitude to overcome not only the opposing team, but the previously insurmountable, league-wide bias against teams from "Egypt".
The only way that bias changes is with a couple Superbowl rings for each player. One won't be enough. Two might be though. And at this point, I think the Seahawks are on the right track to get there.
Posted by highwatermark
I knew it I knew it. The Shockey catch was NOT a catch and I said it at the time, he never had possesion.
ReplyDeleteTo me the Amani one was even more obvious, the guy dragged the first foot down accross the white line well before he ever got the other foot down. He was out of bounds.
Why we keep getting screwed is beyond me, but at least we won.
Good point, monkey. I was wondering that myself, but the replay wasn't slow enough to tell for sure. That's probably why it is considered a bad call now.
ReplyDeletePosted by Bluefoot