FanHouse Mike Carey

Not to say I didn't need the break, because it was nice, but not filing a quasi-weekly Zebra Report left a void in my writing life. With all the recent attention being paid to rule tweaks -- most of which are just guidelines -- in recent days, though, I figured we'd dust off TZR (initials! How cool are we?) and give a little spin on what this means between the lines.

As a refresher, I am a high school back judge with nine years of experience. I'm obviously not qualified to critique the NFL officials, but I'm much more qualified than those who have never officiated at all. The looks at officiating here are simply from the perspective of a high school official, and in no way do they reflect the actual opinion of the NFL officials.

Mike Carey is probably the best referee in the NFL, but he had a bad day during Sunday's Falcons-Chargers game:



That was Carey, first taking his sweet old time before turning on his microphone to announce the penalties on the previous play, and then forgetting, while he was talking, what the second penalty was.

After the jump, watch another video, this one of Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan trampling Carey while trying to make a tackle.

NFL referees don't give many interviews, but everyone seems to be praising the work of Super Bowl ref Mike Carey, and as a result, the league is letting him make the media rounds. Here he is on this morning's ESPN First Take:

Carey insists, like the players do, that he approaches the Super Bowl just like any other game. He also noted the "great sportsmanship" of the players on both teams.

And as for the great Manning to Tyree play, Carey said he started the play thinking that, since it was third-and-5, Giants quarterback Eli Manning would try to draw the Patriots offside. When that didn't happen, "Almost immediately the whole pocket collapsed," Carey said. "I couldn't see anything. I just saw a number of people starting to grab him, so I started to the left side and found an open window where I got a good look at it, and at that point I thought he was going down, but all of a sudden he just squirted out and actually came back right towards me, so I started backpedaling, and he launched it, and I guess the rest is history."

Carey says he gives the officials who worked the game with him "an A-plus."

Previously on FanHouse:
Super Bowl Ref Mike Carey on Eli Manning to David Tyree Pass: 'I Anticipated a Sack'
Eli Manning to David Tyree: Ref Mike Carey in Perfect Position
Super Bowl Hero: Referee Mike Carey

Giants quarterback Eli Manning's pass to David Tyree in Super Bowl XLII is already a legendary play, but referee Mike Carey tells the New York Daily News that he was ready to blow the now-famous Manning to Tyree play dead before Manning's pass happened.

"I knew a sack, or at least grasp and control, was imminent," Carey said.

Carey's explanation of his actions on the play are a textbook description of how a referee needs to call a close play, especially a close play when a quarterback is about to get sacked: He has to be ready to stop the play to protect the quarterback, but he also has to be willing to let the quarterback make the kind of athletic play that Manning ended up making. Carey explains:

"I anticipated a sack. I didn't assume that was going to happen, but rarely do you see a quarterback escape when he's got that much weight on his back and being dragged by two or three guys who had a hold of him. I could see his head was just straight ahead. He was trying to break free with desperation. Then all of a sudden he spun out and then he started to come right back at me."

Carey has, in the past, been accused of being overly protective of quarterbacks. But on this play he wasn't, and if Carey had a quicker trigger finger, we would have been robbed of one of the great plays in football history.

Previously on FanHouse:
Eli Manning to David Tyree: Ref Mike Carey in Perfect Position
Super Bowl Hero: Referee Mike Carey

Examining Manning to Tyree, the play that changed the Super Bowl.

For an instant before Eli Manning unleashed his 32-yard pass to David Tyree in Super Bowl XLII, it appeared that the play was over. The Patriots' defensive line had Manning bottled up, and referee Mike Carey ran toward the play.

Never is a referee's job more difficult than when a quarterback is feeling pressure. The league office constantly harps to the refs on the importance of protecting the quarterback, so the refs constantly have to be mindful of preventing quarterbacks from taking unnecessary punishment. The offensive coaches wills scream at the referee any time the quarterback takes a shot. The defensive coaches will scream at the referee any time he does something to protect the quarterback.

And fans, talk radio and sports writers are brutal toward referees any time they make a mistake in either direction.

So what did Carey do? He called the play to perfection. First, he lined up at his customary position about 10 yards behind the quarterback and off to the right side, since Manning is right handed. At the snap, Carey took a step back to get out of the way when it looked like Adalius Thomas might sack Manning for a big loss.

Then Carey took several steps forward when Manning scrambled forward so he would have a good view of the play, ready to blow his whistle if Manning's progress was stopped.

And then, with a mass of humanity in front of him, Carey did exactly the right thing: He let the football players play football. Maybe some referees would have ruled that Manning had been stopped and blown the play dead, but that would have been a mistake, and it was a mistake Carey avoided. He backpedaled, never took his eyes off the ball, and watched Manning make the play.

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Notes on a trip to the Super Bowl.

Super Bowl XLII was a close, hard-fought game that went down to the wire, the kind of game where one play can make all the difference.

That makes it the kind of game where one bad call by the officials can make all the difference. But unlike many big games of this NFL season, people aren't talking about the officials today. Referee Mike Carey and his crew had a good game, and they deserve a lot of credit today.

Yes, some will nitpick individual calls. Giants receiver Amani Toomer maybe should have been called for offensive pass interference on his 38-yard catch in the second quarter. The Patriots shouldn't have had to challenge the Giants' 12 men on the field penalty; that was a call that the official on the sideline should have seen. Carey seemed awfully quick on the draw to call a delay of game penalty against the Giants.

But mentioning those really is picking nits. Carey and his crew should be commended on a great game.