FanHouse MikeFlorio

FanHouse's resident referee will chime in quasi-weekly with thoughts on major topics relating to officiating. We call it The Zebra Report. Matt Snyder is a high school official with eight years experience. While this is like a third-year resident critiquing the work of a world-renowned surgeon, it's still better than someone who has never worn the stripes.

Before I go getting all sentimental, we have a few plays to check out for this week.

1. The Bears got jobbed on a spot in their game on a third down. It appeared it should have been about a yard and a half or even two yards to gain for a first down. The spot ended up being about a half yard short of the line to gain. I have no problem with the officials, because in fast motion it appeared the receiver wasn't touched before rolling forward for just over a yard. Plus, due to positioning circumstances, they'd be in a huge hurry to get the exact line. Those are tough. My problem, however, lies in the replay rules. The Bears were not allowed to challenge the spot because the Texans didn't gain a first down.

As I mentioned in the Zebra Report, the controversial ending to the Steelers/Ravens game from this past weekend has caused NFL officiating and their use of replay to come under fire, not to mention the overall knowledge of NFL referees and if they should be asking for help on rules interpretation when under the replay hood. We NFL 'Housers figured we'd have a little discussion on the matter.

Bruce Ciskie: ProFootballTalk speculates that Walt Coleman didn't understand the rule on the Holmes "touchdown" in Baltimore on Sunday.

Mike Florio also cites the Steelers-Chargers finish and the "intentional grounding" on Aaron Rodgers against the Vikings as other examples of officials possibly not understanding rules. Obviously, the Rodgers play wasn't reviewable, but the other two were. When a referee goes under the hood, can he ask the booth what a specific rule is? I mean, I've seen the rulebook and I know it's insane. I've taken the NCAA officiating exam and done horribly at it, so it's hard for me to expect a human being to know every rule at all times.

Mike Florio is an attorney who writes for ProFootballTalk.com and Sporting News, mostly on issues of football. Yesterday, he had an interesting legal article about the Roger Clemens self-immolation saga. He puts the blame on Clemens' attorney, Rusty Hardin, for the devolving mess that is now Clemens' reputation. He discusses Clemens legal case in depth here, and in short at PFT saying in conclusion:


Though I have to agree with him that the Clemens case has been a text book for celebrities on how not to preserve your reputation using the legal process, I disagree with my legal colleague on how much responsibility he puts for the Clemens mess on Hardin.