Belichick's Ire Misplaced

The New England Patriots' season came to an end Sunday with a 26-16 loss to the Denver Broncos in the AFC Championship Game. Head Coach Bill Belichick addressed the media Monday Morning and made a point to mention former-Patriot-now-Denver Bronco Wes Welker. Welker hit New England cornerback Aqib Talib in the second quarter. Talib left the game with an injured his knee on the play and left the game. Belichick called it, "one of the worst plays I've seen."

Belichick refused to comment on any possible repercussions from the play, saying he would defer to the League when it came to discipline on the matter.

Personally, I did not see anything out of the ordinary when I saw the play as it was happening. I just thought Talib was injured. It happens in football and I didn't think anything about a penalty or any other punishment for Welker.

I think there is something deeper when it comes to Belichick and his comments on the former Patriot. Welker left the Patriots as a free agent and the head coach feels slighted by that.

You don't leave the Patriots. The Patriots tell you when they are ready for you to leave. If you leave before the team says so, it is a slight (Eric Mangini).

Welker signed with the Broncos before the 2013 season after six seasons with the Patriots. If there was a season New England could have used the services of the former Texas Tech Red Raider, it was 2013 when the receiving corps was hit with everything from injuries to incarceration.

Belichick did an admirable job of keeping the team together throughout the season, taking the team all the way to the conference championship game. Welker was familiar with the Patriots system and game plan and his presence was certainly missed by a team decimated by unfortunate events as the year went on. Anyone who saw the receivers and quarterback Tom Brady go through the growing pains and miscommunications at the start of the season would be surprised to learn that same team would get to within one game of the Super Bowl.

Instead of holding his head high and talking about the positives that occurred during the season, Belichick became overwhelmed with the taste of sour grapes in his mouth and decided to call out a former player. Belichick could have walked up to his former player and said, "Hey, good game out there. Give 'em hell in two weeks, okay Buddy?" but he didn't. He vented his frustrations before the media; Something very un-Belichickian. I believe if the Patriots had won Sunday's game, this incident would never have been mentioned.

Blown Calls will help NFL See the Light

 

Week 3 of the 2012 NFL season has come and gone with even more calls, non-calls, SNAFUs, and controversies. The Ravens win over the Patriots was a hot topic of conversation until the drama in the waning seconds over Monday night's game between the Green Bay Packers and the Seattle Seahawks.

 

(photo: cbs news)

In case you missed it: The NFL has been using replacement officials while the league locks out the regular officials who were asking for a raise in salaries and pensions. The NFL, meanwhile, wants to convert from a pension system to a more widely-used 401(k). While the league and its permanent referees are working together to bridge the labor gap, replacement officials are manning the games. They, like players and coaches, had the preseason to fine-tune their skills and prepare for the regular season. Now that the season is underway it looks like they need another preseason.

The first three weeks of the season have been fraught with penalties, non-calls and irate players and coaches who have been flagged for things when they didn't touch anybody and who were held halfway down the field with no penalty for it.

Two glaring examples of the officiating debacles are the aforementioned games. In Baltimore, kicker Justin Tucker kicked a 27-yard field goal in the closing seconds of Sunday night's matchup between Baltimore and New England. The disputed kick appeared to go directly over the right upright but was ruled good by officials.

That call sent an irate Patriot Head Coach Bill Belichick after an official. Belichick demanded to know what officials saw that made them rule the kick was a succesful field goal.

Meanwhile in Seattle, The Seahawks defeated the Packers on the last play of the game. Russell Wilson's pass to Golden Tate appeared to be intercepted by M.D. Jennings. Officials ruled that the ball was caught by Tate and Seattle had scored, winning the game.

Both of these games were decided on the last play of the game by controversial calls. I believe the contentious negotiations between the referees and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell will soon come to an end.

Coaches and players on both teams were furious and they let officials know it. Belichick and Green Bay Head Coach Mike McCarthy lost a gmae because of disputed calls. Losing a game in September is one thing. Imaine if these games were played in December and the winners of the two games would advance to the playoffs. The loser would be watching from home.

These games left a bad taste on the mouths of people everywhere. Goodell isn't saying publicly but I am sure even he knows something must be done before bigger games with bigger consequences are decided by botched calls and non-calls. The NFL is a muli-billion dollar enterprise that generates gargantuan revenues. Among the enormous sea of green, I'm sure Goodell and representatives of the officials can find some common ground.