Urban Arson

For the first time in my life I missed an NFL season. I’m not talking about a couple of Dallas away games, I mean the entire season. Sure I knew enough about what was going on to BS about it with other “guys”; the Titan’s winning streak, Kurt Warner’s tremendous season, and Dallas’ monumental implosion thanks to Tony Romosexual. But I never actually saw an entire game… It was the first time this had ever happened. So with my Norwegian cousin Hans in town I decided to sit down and watch my first game of the 2008-2009 season, Super Bowl XLIII, one of the best in recent memory (I’ve seen every one since my birth). Yes, it beat last year’s (100-yard, interception touchdown by a linebacker?!?).

The only real problem I had with the game was the last “play”. With the ball just passed mid-field and time running thin, the Cardinals were down by 4. Kurt Warner was desperately looking for an open man. He scrambled to his left and right trying to get the best look at one of his three incredible 3000+ yard receivers. He got in trouble and was tackled as he threw the ball. It was ruled a fumble and Super Bowl XVIII ended on the lamest note in recorded history. 

Here’s a clip:

Now the referees some how ruled this a fumble. There was no lengthy booth review, like they would use in a situation to say, oh I don’t know, decide whether or not the SUPER BOWL was really over. They put exhaustive amounts of time into determining whether a players shoelace touched out of bounds, and they can’t just give a Super Bowl ending play a minute of their time? 

I’ve scoured the internet setting up my own repository of Super Bowl Zapruder footage. The best angle I can find of the play in question is this dark isometric angle from someone who shot their TV with a digital camera and uploaded it to Youtube.

Here it is:

According to the NFL rules book, a possession becomes a pass:

When a Team A player is holding the ball to pass it forward, any intentional movement forward of his HAND starts a forward pass. If a Team B player contacts the passer or the ball after forward movement begins, and the ball leaves the passers hand, a forward pass is ruled, regardless of where the ball strikes the ground or a player.

Now to me and according to the rules, that looks like a pass, an incomplete pass. His hand was going forward and the ball followed suit. If it was a fumble, it was the first spiraled fumble of all time. The game just ended, and everyone looked like they were hiding something. They just sped along like nothing happened. Football God John Madden looked pissed! I don’t know what happened and I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but something was rotten in Tampa…

Look, I know that even if they had ruled it an incomplete pass the next play would have been a Hail Mary at best, but with Warner’s arm, three of the leagues best receivers and Fitzgerald’s much touted jumping ability it would have been a nail biter.