A 19-YARD, second-quarter pass from Tom Brady to Troy Brown, good for a first down, was ruled incomplete in yesterday’s AFC Championship, based on conclusive, replay rule visual evidence – even though it did not exist.
No one with a tangible sense of what football is and how it’s played – before or after the replay rule was installed – would have had a problem with the completion standing, as it was called on the field.
But the entire game changed – and came to the first of half-a-dozen grinding and extended halts – because of a bad, overly officious joke, now in its 14th year. Bad calls are part of every game. Reversals of good calls should never be, but are now a big part of many.
“I don’t know what to tell you; I didn’t think I was wrong in my assessment of any of the replay challenges,” CBS’ Phil Simms told The Post from Pittsburgh after yesterday’s game. “But I was wrong on all of them. Yet, later, you come to the realization that you were right and the decisions were wrong.”
And yesterday’s incessant, “fan friendly” replay rule stoppages were why the Pats-Steelers, a 24-17 game, ran nearly four hours and would’ve run into Eagles-Rams – scheduled to start on Fox at 4:15 – had the kickoff not been held until 4:27.
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Simms remains one of the very few who applies critical, reality-based inspection to the simplistic “story-telling” stats that are posted on our screens . . . Good sideline get by CBS, yesterday, finding injured Brady, after the Pats scored a defensive TD, jumping for joy – on one leg.
On the flip side, CBS, wouldn’t allow us to get into the game until after each team’s first possession because it was busy, as usual, filling the screen with photo IDs of the starters – something that could and should be done just before kickoff.
Fine job by the NFL, yesterday, having Sheryl Crow entertain at halftime of the AFC championship by singing scatological lyrics too vulgar to print. Another Sunday afternoon TV ambush.
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It’s two months from Opening Day. Do you know where your Yankee telecasts will be?
The Yanks’ new YES Network has made for several important yet unanswerable questions. Where will it appear on my cable system? How much will it cost me? Willit appear on my cable system?
But those matters are not likely to be resolved – one way or the other – until Opening Day.
Right now the Yanks and their potential cable affiliates are playing “flinch.” No one wants a lesser deal than the other guy, thus the longer a system waits, the more desperate YES becomes to make a deal – if it’s made.
As always, there’s also the Cablevision factor. The Dolan Gang is infamous for making it tough for its systems subscribers to see programming that isn’t at least partially owned by Cablevision.
That goes double when the programming competes with Cablevision-owned programming, especially sports. And that goes triple if Cablevision loses a valued sports team to a programming competitor.
The Yanks were lost to Cablevision after last season, thus Cablevision is not inclined to treat YES as anything less than an enemy.
Remember, in 1989, before Cablevision bought Madison Square Garden and all its parts – including MSG Network – Cablevision’s Tri-State systems refused to carry MSG, which had just wrested Yankee rights from Cablevision-owned SportsChannel.
That change in Yankee rights ownership resulted in Cablevision subscribers losing a season’s worth of Yankee, Ranger and Knick cablecasts.
Could similar happen again? Sure.
Regardless, one should not expect to learn the important particulars about YES, with its 130 Yankee games, until a few hours before “Play Ball!” is shouted in earnest. YES, for now, means perhaps.
Meanwhile, with MSG’s loss of Yankee rights, which Cablevision, before it bought MSG, characterized as obscenely expensive, can we expect a reduction of what we’re charged for MSG?
We know the answer to that one: Fat chance.
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Friday’s Jennifer Ca- priati-Martina Hingis Australian Open final on ESPN made for remarkable tennis – “Astounding tennis,” host Cliff Drysdale called it – and remarkable, even astounding television.
The constant theme of the telecast, over the 90 minutes that we witnessed, was the oppressive heat that the two women were barely able to endure.
Analyst Pam Shriver spoke about the “heat rule” that allowed Capriati and Hingis ten minutes of rest between sets. Roving reporter Mal Washington told of a courtside camera that was flashing a warning light, indicating that it was about to conk out, due to the heat.
All good stuff that enhanced a match – despite four championship points, Hingis lost – that didn’t need much enhancement.
But exactly how hot was it? Not once, in 90 minutes, were we told.
Saturday’s newspapers had the answer: 95 degrees. A day later, that was nice to know.
