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Posted by Mike Florio on August 25, 2009 11:32 AM ET
Titans coach Jeff Fisher, co-chair of the NFL's Competition Committee, addressed on Tuesday morning the dilemma of the gigantic, four-sided television that hovers only 90 feet over the playing surface of Cowboys Stadium.
Said Fisher on The Dan Patrick Show regarding the problem: "No one's to blame."
Fisher guessed that, in planning the structure, the Cowboys relied on language contained in "a game operations book from 40 or 50 years ago."
As we've heard it, however, teams aren't left to their own devices when planning and building stadiums. A league source told us the day after A.J. Trapasso shtoinked a punt off the bottom of the video contraption that the league approves every minute detail of the design and construction of a new stadium.
Moreover, the implicit suggestion from Fisher that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones relied only on some arcane subparagraph in an outdated manual before green lighting the floating [strike]Circuit City[/strike] Best Buy display (which sends a much different message than "no one's to blame") could serve only to increase tensions between the Cowboys and the league regarding this issue.
Fisher even took it a step farther, overtly nudging some blame toward the Cowboys.
"I'm told they did punt there and thought it was OK," Fisher told Patrick.
Though we firmly agree with the notion that a do-over won't do, Fisher also suggested that the mulligan approach won't work because the officials don't watch the ball after it is kicked.
Um, so how do they know whether to be paying attention for the possibility that it'll go out of bounds, prompting that oddly tantalizing stroll up the sidelines to the exact point where the official estimates that it crossed the white line?
Again, kicking the ball again simply isn't a viable option. But there are stronger arguments than the dubious notion that the back judge doesn't watch the football once it has been kicked.
Regardless of how it turns out, this already has become one of the most compelling rules-related issues that we can remember. If it's not handled correctly, it could have an impact on the willingness of Jones and the Cowboys to "play nice" as the league tries to figure out a new labor deal with the union.
Titans coach Jeff Fisher, co-chair of the NFL's Competition Committee, addressed on Tuesday morning the dilemma of the gigantic, four-sided television that hovers only 90 feet over the playing surface of Cowboys Stadium.
Said Fisher on The Dan Patrick Show regarding the problem: "No one's to blame."
Fisher guessed that, in planning the structure, the Cowboys relied on language contained in "a game operations book from 40 or 50 years ago."
As we've heard it, however, teams aren't left to their own devices when planning and building stadiums. A league source told us the day after A.J. Trapasso shtoinked a punt off the bottom of the video contraption that the league approves every minute detail of the design and construction of a new stadium.
Moreover, the implicit suggestion from Fisher that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones relied only on some arcane subparagraph in an outdated manual before green lighting the floating [strike]Circuit City[/strike] Best Buy display (which sends a much different message than "no one's to blame") could serve only to increase tensions between the Cowboys and the league regarding this issue.
Fisher even took it a step farther, overtly nudging some blame toward the Cowboys.
"I'm told they did punt there and thought it was OK," Fisher told Patrick.
Though we firmly agree with the notion that a do-over won't do, Fisher also suggested that the mulligan approach won't work because the officials don't watch the ball after it is kicked.
Um, so how do they know whether to be paying attention for the possibility that it'll go out of bounds, prompting that oddly tantalizing stroll up the sidelines to the exact point where the official estimates that it crossed the white line?
Again, kicking the ball again simply isn't a viable option. But there are stronger arguments than the dubious notion that the back judge doesn't watch the football once it has been kicked.
Regardless of how it turns out, this already has become one of the most compelling rules-related issues that we can remember. If it's not handled correctly, it could have an impact on the willingness of Jones and the Cowboys to "play nice" as the league tries to figure out a new labor deal with the union.
:signmast:
