touchdown nullified
latest NFL Ref call ..
are you kidding me?

I was in a car driving back from Atlanta to our home in the Low Country with only the ESPN play-by-play texts to follow the Detroit Lion game yesterday.

I was reminded of the stories of how baseball games back in the day would be ‘re-created’ by studio announcers based on a pitch by pitch account that came across by telegraph connections.

Ronald Reagan would tell stories of recreated Chicago Cubs games when he was an announcer at WHO-AM (The radio voice of Iowa) and one time the lines went and he had no update for 5 minutes or so.

Reagan recounted that in his version of the game, he had the batter foul off 27 pitches in a run until the connection was restored.

Anyway, there I was with my phone on my knee waiting for each new update to appear on the screen … and wait.

12 plays.

In realtime it was about 15 minutes.

In game time it was all after the 2 minute warning.

I thought my phone locked on the next to last play.

A little playing field was shown on the screen of my phone with endzone in pink.

I read the last update, 3 & Goal at the 9 about 20 times and finally looked off through the window.

In the reflection I could just see my phone and I figured it would finally refresh and the pink screen would be gone which would mean the Lions scored or didn’t score and the game was over.

3 & Goal at the 9.

3 & Goal at the 9.

Wait some more.

3 & Goal at the 9.

Finally my screen flashed and when it reloaded all is showed was the final score.

I had to click a few buttons to finally read the last play and to read for the 2nd time in the drive, Touchdown Nullified.

Twice in the same drive.

Touchdown Nullified.

The complete burst of text for that final play was (shotgun) J. Goff pass short left to A. St. Brown to Put 8 for 1 yard. Lateral to J. Goff for 8 yards. TOUCHDOWN NULLIFIED by Penalty. PENALTY on DET – A. St. Brown. Offensive Pass Interference. 0 yards, enforced at PIT 9 – No Play.

No wonder it took so long for my phone to refresh.

Without there being a play, the time was over so the game was over, so said the Refs.

And the Refs had a lot to say.

In the last 12 plays, 5 penalties were called.

Lions had the ball at the 1 and two penalties later, the Lions were back on 16.

Some will argue it was bad football by the Lions.

But it certainly seemed like there was more than just football going on down there.

Much later I was able to read that what happened on the last play was:

“It is a pretty complex play. We had the original player who had the ball, lose possession of the ball. So, we had to decide if that was a fumble or a backwards pass because of course we have restrictions on the recovery of a fumble inside two minutes. We ruled that it was a backward pass, so the recovering player was able to advance it and that recovering player advanced it for a touchdown. We had to rule on that and then because of the offensive pass interference, it negates the touchdown. Because it is an offensive foul, we do not extend the half. Therefore, there is no score and there is no replay of the down. That’s the way the rule is written,” [Head Ref] Cheffers said.

I hate to same old Lions but much the way the same old Lions have done all my life, they somehow, someway find a different way to lose a football game.

Was it a bad call?

Was it a bunch of bad calls?

It certainly was a bunch of calls.

As Head Coach Dan Campbell said, “I don’t even want to get into it, because it’s not going to change anything. We still lost,” Campbell said. “It’s — I mean, you think you score, you don’t score, and then you think you’re going to have another play. Replay it or back it up, one more shot. And it doesn’t. And that’s just, I guess that’s the way it’s written in the rulebook. So, that’s frustrating. But there again, it should never come to that.”

You want to be good.

You want to lucky.

But as Lefty Gomez said years ago, ‘I’d rather be luck than good.’

unique and complex
don’t know that you can prepare
for something like this

“Unique and complex, obviously,” Poggi responded. “Multiple levels of complexity that our young people are dealing with and our university is dealing with, our athletic director, Warde Manuel, is dealing with. And our team, our coaches and our kids. I don’t know that you can prepare for something like this.”

From the article, Biff Poggi says Michigan players feel ‘betrayed’ after Sherrone Moore firing by Alex Valdes, Dec. 15, 2025 (NYT)

more importantly
what do you believe? and what …
what will you become

“To be able to tap into that source, that part of who you are that transcends thinking — that’s what I’m talking about. We’ve all done it; we’ve all seen it.
Faith is belief without proof. Something deeper than your own thoughts. Giving your all, win, lose, or draw—that takes some version of faith, whatever that means to you. And sometimes that faith is the only way you’re going to win that game, or the only way you’re going to get that contract. It’s the only way to reach a new level of excellence.
So I ask you: What is your big dream?
More importantly, what do you believe? And what will you become?”

Excerpt From Stay Sane in an Insane World: How to Control the Controllables and Thrive
by Greg Harden.

Greg Harden was known as Michigan’s Secret Weapon.

According to Wikipeda, Assoc Athletic Director Harden was best known for his work with 7-time Super Bowl champion quarterback Tom Brady. He also worked with Heisman Trophy winner and Super Bowl MVP Desmond Howard, and 23-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps. Brady, Howard, and other athletes credit Harden with inspiring them to overcome obstacles and achieve success in their professional and personal lives.

Harden began work as a student-athlete counselor in 1986 when Michigan football coach Bo Schembechler brought him in after hearing of the work Harden was doing in Ypsilanti, helping people deal with the challenges of everyday life and work. In the years since, Harden has been named associate Athletic Director and Director of Athletic Counseling for the University of Michigan Athletic Department.

Sorry to say that Dr. Harden died a year ago.

Seems like his role and importance in that athletic program, was somehow, greatly underestimated.

When I was a student, I had one Art History Professor who could not resist a Monday morning comment about that weekends game.

One week he approached the lectern and popped open a can of Coke and took a big swig, then said in a VERY HOARSE voice … “I mean really … 72 points.”

Then Michigan lost to that team down south.

This Professor stood at his lectern that next Monday and stared out at us a while then said, “It is good to remember there are all just kids like you.”

So I ask you: What is your big dream?

More importantly, what do you believe? And what will you become?”

And always remember, Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.

naw, he said, now what
would I want to remember …
a thing like that for?

In 1966, George Plimpton wrote a book titled Paper Lion as an inside view of pro football by going through the pre-season with the Detroit Lions.

He came out with a follow up book in 1973 titled Mad Ducks and Bears that told the story of the years after 1966 through Plimpton’s friendship and interviews with Detroit Lions Alex Karras (The Mad Duck) and John Gordy (The Bear).

In Mad Ducks and Bears, Plimpton writes about what it was like for Karras and Gordy to play with Quarterback Booby Layne who both men acknowledged was a masterful football player but a pretty nasty guy otherwise.

Both men carried long grudges against Layne that lasted through their careers.

Plimpton relates this story told by Alex Karras, writing:

The two of them sat quietly, thinking back on those days. Finally Karras said, “You know something crazy? Bobby Layne was traded away by Detroit to the Pittsburgh Steelers. He ended up his career there. We played them one Sunday, and this play came up where he was chased out of the pocket and ran out of bounds. I was chasing him, really reaching for him, and when we got out of bounds I still went for him. I racked his ass. Back behind the bench somewhere. Knocked a water bucket over, I remember. I don’t know why I did it. It was crazy. We got a big penalty and I was chewed out plenty.”

“What about Layne?” I asked.

“I can remember him looking at me out of that crazy helmet he wore. ‘Hey, what did you do that for?’ he says. “I couldn’t have told him. No way.”

Later in the book, Plimpton recounts how he had the chance to meet Bobby Layne, spend some time with him and interview him.

Plimpton writes:

“Bobby,” I asked, “do you remember a game when you were playing for Pittsburgh in which you were run out of bounds, and Alex Karras came out of nowhere and really belted you one? They damn near threw him out of the game for it? A water bucket went over. It was way out of bounds. Do you remember that?”

Layne was silent for such a long time that I thought he had his mind on something else and had not heard the question.

“Naw,” he said finally. He reached for the door handle of the jeep.

“Naw, now what would I want to remember a thing like that for?”

Folks, the next time someone suggests that the Lions’ wear throwback uniforms, throwback to those great Lions’ teams, throwback to those great Lions’ games, throwback to those great Lions’ memories that we all say:

“Naw, now what would I want to remember a thing like that for?”

but beating the team
that you hate the most? That lasts
the rest of your life

It’s also college football in a nutshell, and it’s worth keeping in mind as we enter Rivalry Week: In the end, what makes this sport so deliriously wonderful is this sort of irrational emotion, this primal and eternal bile. We have become accustomed, already, just in the second year of the 12-team Playoff, to gauging every week’s results by how they affect the ever-shifting CFP bracket picture, and we’re fully primed to do that again this week. 

But the thing about those games is that, in the long term, what they mean for Playoff positioning will be the least interesting thing about them. What matters is beating those other guys’ brains in. What matters is getting to talk trash all year.

This would seem like an obvious thing to say — college football is about tradition and rivalries — but it is one that, because of college football’s wild changes over the past few years, needs to be repeated and, perhaps more than anything else, cherished.

But beating the team you hate the most? That lasts the rest of your life.

From the New York Time article, College Football Playoff bids are great. Making your rival miserable is still better by Will Leitch.

Of last year, Mr. Leitch wrote:

Maybe Ohio State beat Tennessee, Oregon, Texas and Notre Dame to win the national title last year. But it didn’t beat Michigan, which means a huge chunk of its glorious season was a complete and total failure. That is hilarious. It is also kind of wonderful — and one of the best reasons to love this deranged sport.

I was born and raised in a Michigan family.

My first big sports hero I remember was Michigan basketball start, Cazzie Russel.

And the first big sports memory was that Saturday after Thanksgiving in 1969 when Michigan beat an Ohio State team that hadn’t lost in 2 years.

I like to say that when I was a kid I was told that Woody Hayes was under my bed if I got out, he would grab me and take me off to Ohio.

Reading biographies as a kid I had to wrestle with the fact that General Grant, Thomas Edison, the Wright Brothers and James Thurber all were born in Ohio.

It didn’t make any sense.

Until I figured it out that none of them achieved much success until they LEFT Ohio.

Mr. Leitch quotes William Hazlitt called “On the Pleasure of Hating.”

Mr. Hazlitt once wrote, back in 1826:

Nature seems made of antipathies.

Without something to hate, we should lose the very spring of thought and action.

Pure good soon grows insipid, wants variety and spirit.

Pain is a bittersweet, which never surfeits.

Love turns, with a little indulgence, to indifference or disgust:

Hatred alone is immortal.

With that in mind, I am thankful this Thanksgiving for something so worthy of my hate.

I live in a seaside resort community that oddly enough has a large Ohio contingent.

Up the coast a bit in Charleston, SC, then even have a MEME of GBTO or Go Back to Ohio.

Its kind of goofy but when the concept arose back in the late 1970’s that timeshare vacations were invented, the fellers in charge took a map and estimated the furthest a father might drive their family and their research led them to focus their marketing efforts on the state of Ohio.

And it worked!

But as one local blogger put it … Tourism is the bread and butter of the lcoal economy, but Ohio’s arrival seems like adding five extra sticks of butter. Sure, we’re richer for it, but at what cost?

Anyway, what this means it that this is a great place to wear an M coaches cap.

And when I say coaches cap, I mean what is now called the ‘SKINNY M’ coaches cap.

It is great fun to walk the beaches and parks and hear from all sides folks yell out GO BLUE.

Especially … ESPECIALLY when there some of those OH IO people around.

You know them.

The group that needs two people to spell O H I O.

BTW, having worked in the world on Online News for 20 years, I was always happy to report that any story on Ohio State Football had twice as many reads as any other sports story.

There was the Ohio State Fan … and the person who read the story to them.

But I digress.

And down here.

They see me.

They see my cap.

My T shirt.

My sweat shirt.

My swim trunks.

They see the M.

And I see them.

And all I have to do is smile.

And they know it.