A Grip on Sports: How many times will the NFL allow its reign to be undermined by a fealty to an outdated process of marking the football?
A GRIP ON SPORTS • The NFL is king. King of television. King of American sports. King of mass hysteria.
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• Like kings throughout history, this one seems to feel it was ordained by a higher power. The Big Screen in the Sky, maybe? But that’s never been true, not for Henry IV or Charles III or even Pete Rozelle I. Kings are only kings as long as they can hold the interest and fealty of their subjects. Isn’t that right George III, or has America started spelling neighbor with a “u” again?
It is never one thing that causes the end of a reign. It’s the accumulating drips of small failures that leads to loss of credibility, stature and the ensuing cleansing flood.
Failures that seem so innocuous early on but turn out to be more serious than anyone ever imagined. A tax on tea, for example. An insensitive comment about cake. Or an inability to change with the times.
And that’s where the NFL is at on this 27th day of January, in the year of 2025 – a quarter of the way into the 21st Century.
Electric cars are driving themselves. Every person over the age of 11 holds a computer in their hands 16 hours a day. Rockets are launched into space and return to land on Earth. And the NFL uses two sticks, a chain and four eyeballs to decide the most crucial decisions in its most crucial games.
Just like it did when Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryant were arguing over monkeys in rural Tennessee.
Did Josh Allen convert a key fourth down in Sunday’s 32-29 AFC Championship loss at Kansas City in the NFL’s most-important game of the season? No one knows for sure. Not even those in charge of answering the question. How could they? In a game that has gone from the sports equivalent of single-celled organisms to Cro-Magnon Man in the past 100 years, the league refuses to evolve when it comes to marking the ball. You know, the most-common officiating act of each game.
If it was OK for Sammy Baugh, it should be OK for Patrick Mahomes, right?
No, not right. Nor should it be acceptable to Roger Goodell, the latest monarch in the Rozelle dynasty.
Goodell and his minions should understand most royal bloodlines are dismantled through an excess of greed. And that’s what stands between the league and eliminating the type of doubt which not only will haunt Allen, the Buffalo faithful and, not to get too hyperbolic, all of us. For at least a couple weeks anyway.
The league rakes in about $20 billion a year. Sure, it has expenses. Billions of dollars of them. But one line item needing an immediate infusion is R&D. Of the electronic chip that holds the promise of instantaneous and correct marks.
The NFL’s official football, made by Wilson Sporting Goods since Baugh played for the Washington team, includes an RFID tracking chip. Has since 2017. And yet the league doesn’t use the technology on a play-by-play basis. Not yet.
It held a preseason trial this year. It didn’t go as well as the league hoped. The technology’s implementation was put off until next season – at the earliest. In the meantime, the league’s credibility, battered year-after-year by issues of safety, inconsistent officiating and off-the-field dustups, takes another self-inflicted blow.
Did Allen and, more importantly, the ball, advance far enough to convert a key fourth-quarter fourth down? The two linesmen seemed to have differing views, as always. Replay was inclusive, as it often is. Arguments ensued. Opinions offered. But there is no arguing there has to be a better way to make a determination.
If the NFL can make the chip viable. All it takes is time and money. The former has already passed us by. The latter has obviously not been enough, not yet.
Get it done. Spend whatever it takes. Make it work. Eliminate a source of controversy that surfaces way too often in the postseason.
This time next year, when the Bills face a last-second fourth-and-goal from 3 inches out to end the Chiefs’ three-year championship run, have it in place. When Allen tries to push the pile forward, everyone from Amherst to Overland Park will know whether or not he scored. Definitively.
If the NFL is still relying on four eyes and a lot of guess work then, their subjects won’t be happy. And the king’s credibility will suffer another wallop. All because Goodell won’t open the league’s wallet.
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WSU: Around the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, Stanford attracted Andrew Luck back to its bucolic campus recently to improve its falling football fortunes. He believes it can be done. … Jedd Fisch has recruited a former Arizona player to help his Washington staff. … Former UW coach Don James’ widow, Carol, died at 92. … Not Pac-12 related, per se, but the athletes at California’s Sonoma State are fighting back against the school’s decision to ax all sports in the near future. … John Canzano has a good column about diversifying young athletes’ portfolio. … In basketball news, it was a good week for the Oregon State men’s program. … The travel demands as a Big Ten program are starting to wear on UCLA. The Bruins are speaking out about it. … The USC men are recruiting Southern California with as much intensity as Eric Musselman’s squads defend. … San Diego State is using its younger players more. … Utah State went a long time before its first loss. The Aggies seem focused on going a long time before their second.
Gonzaga: We still wonder some. Though we won’t have long before we should find out. Was it the lineup and rotation changes Mark Few made that resulted in Saturday night’s rout of host Portland? Or was it because the Pilots were the perfect petri dish culture for his defensive-oriented experiment? And will the changes continue to grow success? With Oregon State in the Kennel on Tuesday night and a trip to Saint Mary’s on Saturday, we should have clarity quickly. Meanwhile, we have Jim Meehan’s follow-up story on the Portland win to digest between now and then.
EWU and Idaho: Around the Big Sky, the atmosphere in Missoula for Saturday’s showdown with Montana State was electric. … The House settlement is going to hit the Big Sky’s schools differently than it does the Power Four’s. … Sacramento State has made an impact on the recruiting trail. … Portland State is adding a quarterback from Hawaii through the portal.
Seahawks: As Saquon Barkley and Philadelphia was pulling away from Washington and before all the controversial calls in Kansas City, the news leaked Seattle had settled on its next offensive coordinator. It is veteran NFL assistant Klint Kubiak, who was the Saints’ OC last season. … Is Pete Carroll just the coach the morbid Las Vegas franchise needs?
Kraken: Seattle has a big rig to move its equipment. And one that moves around the ice.
Storm: Jewell Loyd got her wish. Seattle made a trade. The Storm sent Loyd to Las Vegas. In return as part of a three-way trade that included Los Angeles, they received the No. 2 pick in the upcoming draft, a player and changed some other draft positioning. Enough of a return for the six-time all-star? Probably as much as they could get, considering Loyd’s out-loud demand for a trade.
Mariners: The Athletic’s latest top 100 prospects list includes three Mariners currently playing shortstop, a young second baseman and a couple hitters who might project best as only that. You know, the designated kind. We’re guessing one of the shortstops, 21-year-old Cole Young, will be playing second base consistently this upcoming season. In the Major Leagues. … Rob Manfred has put his mark on the game in the past decade, that’s for sure. What is unsure is whether that’s a good or bad thing.
Tennis: Madison Keys’ overnight success story was 14 years in the making.
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• I awoke almost an hour early this morning. I had a choice. Shut my eyes and hope for a little more sleep or just pull myself out of bed and begin my day. After a few seconds of contemplation, I chose the latter. No one is perfect, right? Until later …