Let the Players Decide the Game

The title above is in citation marks as a result of I see athletes and followers use the time period to imply one thing completely different from the obvious that means.

In fact, the gamers ought to determine the sport, however they need to determine the sport primarily based on guidelines. It will make no sense to say “let the gamers determine the sport” if it meant that an ineligible receiver (in soccer) may obtain a cross, {that a} sort out may use his helmet as a spear into the chest of an opposing participant, or any variety of different guidelines violations. But gamers and followers usually use the time period to imply that small violations ought to be allowed.

This difficulty got here up within the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs’ loss to the Buffalo Payments on Sunday. With simply over a minute left, KC quarterback Patrick Mahomes threw the soccer to Travis Kelce, who caught it and ran down the sphere. As he was about to be tackled, Kelce threw the ball backwards to Kadarius Toney, who bumped into the top zone and scored a landing. Or so we thought. However the play was nullified as a result of a line decide had thrown the flag proper at first of the play when Toney was lined up offside. Right here’s the video.

Mahomes and others argued that Toney’s lining up offside didn’t give the Chiefs any benefit. That’s true.

However right here’s the issue. Line judges, until they miss it, are just about at all times going to name offsides. And spot within the video that the flag was thrown instantly earlier than the play advanced.

So, for Patrick Mahomes to get his manner, he must contend one in all two issues: (1) the road decide ought to wait till the play is over earlier than throwing the flag on an offside name, one thing I’ve by no means seen occur in years of watching soccer, or (2) the road decide or one other referee, after the play had ended, ought to have acknowledged what a terrific play it was and gone over and picked up the flag, making it a no-call.

With both of these choices, the refs, not the gamers, can be deciding the sport, and never in a great way.

The fact is that one participant, Kadarius Toney, did determine the sport.

The pic above is of Mahomes yelling on the ref.