The Daily Dose/January 22, 2019
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off
It should have been a triumphant day for the National Football League: both of the conference championship games determining the teams that will play in the Super Bowl went to overtime. In the end, the New England Patriots earned their eleventh AFC title with a 37-31 win on the road against the Kansas City Chiefs while the Los Angeles Rams got an overtime field goal to beat the New Orleans Saints 26-23 to make the Super Bowl for the fourth time.
It wasn’t though. The Rams win was marred by a pass interference call that wasn’t made and the flaws of the NFL’s overtime rule were on display in the Patriots’ win.
In the NFC game, The game was tied 20-20 with 1:41 left in the game when a Rams defender leveled an New Orleans receiver just as a pass was arriving and it wasn’t even close, either: Helen Keller could have made the call. There are seven officials on the field for an NFL game at two have them had jurisdiction on that call and a case could be made that three did. Everyone who could have thrown a flag passed on it, though why is not clear because only place that play is not a penalty is in a football game put on by UFC. Had interference been called New Orleans would have a first down deep in Los Angeles territory with inside of two minutes remaining in the game. It is not unreasonable to believe they would have worked the clock and kicked a game winning field goal.
In the AFC championship game the Patriots won the toss before overtime, received the kickoff and marched 75 yards for a touchdown. Game over. Under NFL rules – and these are some of the worst overtime rules anywhere – a touchdown in this situation ends the game, though had the Patriots only mustered a field goal the Chiefs would have had a chance to go on offense.
This is very bad for the NFL. We’ve officiated a lot over the years and Lord knows we know calls get missed, but something that obvious in a that big of a game must be called. And sudden death overtime does not do anyone any good. The NFL has some work to do this off-season.
Today At The Site
The Diary of a Nobody: It is very slow at both the hotel and the retailer, where Sparrow takes some online training about how he is not allowed to confront a shoplifter.
…lowly peons like us are not authorized to confront, much less apprehend shoplifters…We must notify a salaried member of management because they’re all-powerful and can do anything…All we’re allowed to do is wave at shoplifters as they carry their TV out of the store.
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On This Date
In 1973 – The United States Supreme Court delivers its opinion in Roe v Wade, legalizing abortion in the United States. In a 7-2 ruling, the court overturned a Texas law that made it a crime to assist a woman in getting an abortion, legalizing abortion in America, ruling the due process clause of the 14th Amendment extended to a woman’s decision to have an abortion.
In 2006 – Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers scores 81 points in a 122-104 win over the Toronto Raptors. Bryant had 26 points at halftime and scored 27 points in the third quarter and 28 in the fourth. It remains the second-highest point total by a player in an NBA game, trailing only Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game in 1962.
In 1966 – The Sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel is at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the second of two non-consecutive weeks. The song had first went to #1 on January 1, only to be replaced the following two weeks by The Beatles’ We Can Work It Out. The Sound of Silence also went to #1 in South Africa and Japan and Simon and Garfunkel were actually broken up at the time, though the success of the song got them back together.
Quotebook
In the city, people paid to hear other people sing and watch other people feel. Passion has become a spectator sport supported by emotional cripples. Love and suffering were knacks possessed by the talented paid to display their gifts.
Lawrence Sanders
The Third Deadly Sin
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
The two songs that have spent ten weeks at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 are Waiting for a Girl Like You by Foreigner (1981-82) and Work It by Missy Elliot (2002-03)
Today’s Stumper
How many #1 songs did Simon and Garfunkel have? –Answer next time!
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