Payola Strikes Again

ABC News is reporting that the United States Federal Communications Commision (FCC) is investigating "100's of radio stations" for something called payola. As defined by the ABC website payola is "pay for play". This means that every time a station plays a song they get paid for it, it's an incentive for stations to give more playes to a particular artist than others. This may or may not be serious, however, the FCC seems to be taking it very seriously. The FCC rules say that payola puts station licenses in jeoprady. You can read more at ABCNews.com. This could get interesting.

Follow Up to Superbowl XL

Wow, someone actually read my blog and posted a comment, I'm amazed. Ok, so I want to just clear the air about a few things. Jim (my one reader and commenter) raised some points that I won't dispute but I'm not in entire agreement with. I have a question as a referee, do you believe it is possible to see the football cross the plane of the goal line by 1/4 of an inch? Heck, you think you can tell from a full inch? This is why we have goal reveiw, and again I agree with the call after the review, I just don't think the ref on the field should have made the touchdown call at all. With regards to the offensive pass interferece, my thanks to Jim for explaining the rule more clearly to me. I still do not believe that the Steelers performance was impeded upon however, I don't have a DVR or TiVo so I can't go back and look at the play for the 25th time. I won't go into the holding again because I already have said that Al Michaels and John Madden said there was no hold, I think I'll differ to their call. In my opinion every call that could have been made against Seattle was made, the Steelers did not play a perfect game, in fact they played terrible, they got lucky, with the help of the officials and one interecption, check out Sports Illustrated's report card on the game if you don't believe me. You can't tell me there wasn't a time when the Steelers had a penatly and they didn't get called for it. The offensive pass interference play could have easily been forward pass interference as the defender was grabbing at the reciever the whole entire time (ok, granted this is part of the game but if your going to make stupid calls please make them all stupid). Ok, that's it, I've said my piece two times now, and Jim, I do thank you very much for posting a comment to the blog and I hope that even though you and I do not agree on this particular thing that you continue to vist my blog and post about issues that you find relavent. To the rest of you, ttfn.

Seahawks Lose Superbowl

Ok, I know my blog is like the 4 millionth time you've read about Superbowl XL. I have two words to say and then I will justify them. BAD OFFICIATING! Now, in the interest of fairness, I am, for the purposes of this article, a Seahawks fan (normally, I cheer for Green Bay but I live in the Northwest so I cheer for the Hawks if they do better). I can name 3 major calls that either stole potential points from the Seahawks or were just bad calls. I'll start with the biggest.
Rothinsberger touchdown - I agree with the call that the referee made upon reviewing the tape. However, I don't believe he should have had to review a call at all. The call on the field was incorrect. Steeler gain of 7 points (Seattle loss of 7).
Seattle Offensive Pass Interference - What interference? Oh, I'm turning away from you, I need to turn and your the convient way to do it, but I'm going to get a penalty. Oh, and did I mention that the Steeler player campaigned for the call. I'm sorry, you don't ever, I MEAN EVER do something because a player asks, you're the ref not the players. I've been a ref before (in soccer, but it's the same deal) no matter how many players badger you stick to your guns (Loss of 7 points no matter how you look at it).
Seattle Holding after making it to the 2 yd line - Again, What hold? Heck, even John Madden didn't think there was a hold on that play. (Net loss of 7 potential yards).
Some more minor calls like the Hasselback block after his interception throw (not a penalty). I'm sorry, maybe it's because I'm a fan but this was the absolute worst officiating I have ever seen in the NFL, heck in any sport (ok, maybe not any sport, figure skating and some soccer). But I'm not bitter, ask me in about 3 weeks after the Olympics, I might be bitter then, it will depend on how many medals Team Canada can pull off. Later.