 |
|
|
Or, more likely, Mike Florio is just acting like a schmuck again, trying to stir up controversy where none exists.
Once again, Mike quotes his "league sources" when talking about Bill Polian:
In response to one of the Wednesday Morning One-Liners capably harvested by our own MDS, a league source has raised the question of whether Colts G.M. Bill Polian should be fined by the NFL for making comments critical of game officials.
The "criticism" Florio and his league source, Harvey the Rabbit, are referring to is Polian answering a question from a fan on his Monday call-in radio show on HANK FM, The Bill Polian Show, which you (and Mike Florio) can listen to on Colts.com. Florio links to The Polian Corner on Colts.com, which is an edited for space transcript of the show. I listened to the actual radio show, and on it a fan called in and asked Polian about refs not calling roughing the passer as much this season. Polian agreed that they weren't:
(Colts quarterback) Peyton (Manning) got drilled in the head earlier in the year and they let it go. The officiating department said, `No, we don't want that called.' We didn't get the memo on that apparently. In any event, that has been liberalized a little bit, although that was not the case in the Monday Night game last week. There was a little love tap on the quarterback's shoulder and it was called. You've heard me say before that consistency is the hobgoblin we have to deal with in officiating. That was never more clear than Sunday, by the way. You had two teams (Colts and Buccaneers) that preach and coach penalty avoidance and a crew of officials that was on top of every play. You had a great game and a quick game. The question you ask yourself is, `Why can't you have that every week?' It's puzzling. In any event, my impression is it's a little more liberal now. We'll know at the end of the year. Sometimes, your impression when you see snippets of games here and there is not true when you research the data.
So, I think the most obvious, rational question for Mr. Florio, attorney at law and Sprint phone pimp, is WHY THE HELL DO YOU THINK THIS SHOULD DRAW A FINE? Polian is answering a question, offering his opinion on rule interpretation. Where is he bashing or questioning refs? Refereeing is going to be inconsistent because (duh!) different people ref different games. In his full response (not shown here but on the radio show), the inquiring fan asked Polian about the ref for the Tampa game, Mike Carey. In responding to the fans question, Polian applauded Carey because Carey seems to be a consistent ref. The response linked above, and attacked by Florio, is in relation to Polian praising Carey for his consistency and wishing more games had that kind of consistency.
If Florio is suggesting Polian get fined for saying this, Florio needs to seriously consider rooting for another sport, or moving to the People's Republic of China.
Also, I sometimes wonder if Florio actually reads his full source material, or if his league source, Harvey the Rabbit, is an even bigger dumbass than Florio makes him out to be.