BBQ vs. Cheesesteaks: Super Bowl LVII running thread

I'm glad we're on the same page then.

 

It does not matter one bit where the QB was looking or if the guy being held was the intended receiver, and the officials can’t know that even if it did matter.

 

Yes, I’m aware of that. Just pointing out that the hold likely had no effect on the play and in this case if the official wasn’t aware of that, he probably shouldn’t be an official in a professional football game

 

Defensive holding is called on players away from the play all the time. And how do you know it had no effect on the play? The pass missed JuJu by five or six yards on a timing route. It landed in bounds in the end zone. So he wasn't throwing it away. The play was designed for Smith-Schuster to break in toward the line then cut up field toward the side boundary and Mahomes was going to hit him with a pass based on where he was supposed to be. He was grabbed as he made his cut. The defender was beat. He knew it, so he grabbed at JuJu's back. He held and the ref caught it. It was a good call even if it was not an egregious hold like the PI that wasn't called earlier in the game that prevented Smith-Schuster from a completion.

 

Yes, I know defensive holding is called away from the play all the time. But the call in question all the time isn’t a Super Bowl-deciding call. Also, unless you were in the huddle or have the Chiefs’ playbook, you have no idea what they were trying to do. But I guarantee it wasn’t a timing route thrown to the corner of the end zone in the hopes that a receiver would be there. If it was, Reid should have his head examined.

It was third-and-8 inside of two minutes left of a Super Bowl with KC in gimme field-goal range. In that situation, nobody is going to call a blind timing pattern. That type of play is almost never called in the red zone, let alone in a tie game in the last two minutes of a Super Bowl. You’re going to call a safe single-read pass, and if it isn’t open, you’re going to throw it out of the end, zone, which is essentially what Mahomes did, and kick. Mahomes was clearly looking for someone going across the middle in the back of the end zone, and that was not there for him. So he threw it to the back pylon, and the officials bailed them out and handed them the Lombardi.

 

Former ESPN President Controversially Advocates Making Super Bowl Pay-Per-View

Why not? They've found a way to increase their monetization of everything else, selling tickets to training camp, "experience" packages for the Draft and SB, And you may ask, but what about the ads? As long as more people watch the SB than any other program each year, they can still get top rates. I don't even know if the networks really turn a profit on broadcasting the NFL with rights fees being what they are - but it does provide access to a large viewership to promote their programing - that's the real value.

 

Though I wouldn't be surprised if the NFL made a move to take a cut of advertiser revenue from the game. What is a broadcaster going to do? Say no?

 

What a stupid idea. I think I see why that guy has "former" in his title.

 

If they make the Super Bowl PPV I won’t watch unless I have a rooting interest.

 

The NFL has spent over half a century working hard to make the Super Bowl what it has become, a de facto national holiday. They're not pissing that away. Plus, I very much doubt that the money they'd take in from a PPV Super Bowl would make up for the cut off the top it'd take from their network contracts which include the rights to said Super Bowl on a regular basis.