Okay, maybe that’s a bit exaggerated. But it’s definitely a highly questionable call that will be talked about for months and months. Especially if the Lions go on to have another crappy season with only a win a two.

Because the thing is, in my mind, and in a lot of minds (and not just Detroit fans), the Lions won that opening game. Which would put them in first place for the first time since 2007. Granted they would be tied for first with like 16 other teams but whatever. And they would have won the game in the final seconds of a game with a backup, relatively unknown QB at the helm–who managed to move the ball all the way down the field and get the ball in the endzone in less than a minute.

But in the official books and records, they did not win the game.

Even though the receiver Calvin Johnson did catch the ball in the endzone, with two hands, with full possession of the ball, and with the ball not slipping out when his entire body hit the grass.

But as he got up, CJ left the ball on the ground.

See the video of Calvin Johnson’s non-touchdown for yourself and you decide!

So it wasn’t a touchdown. It was ruled incomplete because he didn’t complete the full “process of the pass,” according to the announcers on NFL Red Zone anyway.

So what exactly is this mystical “process of the pass” that so few of us have ever heard of that just magically appeared at the end of this game? Or as Chris Chase said on Yahoo Sports, “When is a catch not a catch? When it happens in the NFL, apparently.”

Even Senior Correspondent Erik Sweetland, who is one of the biggest football fanatics I know, had only ever heard this call (or rule or whatever the NFL is coining this term) once. When the same situation happened to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last year again the Miami Dolphins on November 13, 2009. And the Bucs lost that game as well.

I was told you can find this football rule in: Rule 8, Section 1, Article 3.

Well:

Rule 8, Section 1, Article 3, Item 1 of the NFL Rule Book (page 51) states that “if a player goes to the ground in the act of catching a pass (with or without contact with an opponent), he must maintain control of the ball after he touches the ground, whether in the field of play or the end zone. If he loses control of the ball, and the ball touches the ground before he regains control, the pass is incomplete. If he regains control prior to the ball touching the ground, the pass is complete.” Blogs NFl.Com

That doesn’t say, “said player must get up with the ball to maintain the process of the pass.”

A forward pass is complete when a receiver clearly possesses the pass and touches the ground with both feet inbounds while in possession of the ball. If a receiver would have landed inbounds with both feet but is carried or pushed out of bounds while maintaining possession of the ball, pass is complete at the out-of-bounds spot. -Rules Digest NFL.Com

Neither does that.

I Googled (and even Binged) this rule for over 30 minutes with every search term I could think of: “process of the pass, pass completion rules, NFL rules, Possession of the ball, touchdown completion rules, what makes a pass complete….etc.”

And nothing. Never saw any rules about a player having to stand up with the ball to make the pass complete in a touchdown situation. We know it must exist since it was called once before in that Tampa Bay game and it’s not like the league overturned the call after the game. But maybe they need to do a 2010 Edition of the Most Boring and Ridiculous Book of Crap NFL Rulebook that clearly outlines what they would like to see the players do in the end zone.

Because right now it kinda seems like the NFL would have rather Calvin Johnson, get up with the ball in hand and do an dance in the end zone, spiking the ball into the fans and get called for excessive celebration than just calming get up and leave the ball on the ground…..

How I love stupid NFL rules. Apparently Chris Chase does too. I leave you with the quote of the week:
“The runner did not complete the catch in the process of the catch?” Leave it to the NFL to make the simple concept of catching a ball as convoluted as Senate procedure for filibustering.

Why do there have to be so many conditions to a catch? Toddlers know when a ball is caught and when it isn’t. Aside from getting two feet in, what more does the NFL want people to do? Should Calvin Johnson have brought the ball with him to the sideline? Should he hold it for the flight home? Take it to dinner? When does the process of a catch end?”  Read more from Chris Chase at Sports.Yahoo.com

Check out the Stiletto Sports Guide to football rules and penalties for more stupid football technicalities! Or follow me on twitter, I talk about dumb football rules all the time!

As most of you know, Kurt is my absolute favorite NFL quarterback. I’ve only mentioned him in about, oh, 350 out of the 450 articles published to date. He’s even been the main feature of quite a few of those!

When I first started Stiletto Sports, I knew quite a bit about football but had not pledged alligance to any team. But last year, the Cardinals end-of-season Cinderella story and Super Bowl run endeared me to them and I became a Cardinals girl. And my love carried through this season.

In a lot of ways, you could say that Kurt made me a football fanatic. I was only mildly interested before, and even running a sports website had not made me all excited about the thought of 17 Sundays of Football. But Kurt did. It opened my eyes to watching the game—and no, not just because he is hot. I started to really get into the plays and understanding the teams offense and defense–something I never thought I would give a rats ass about. Nothing made me happier every Sunday than watching Kurt complete a pass to Larry Fitzgerald.

When they were knocked out of the post-season by the NFC Champs New Orleans Saints, I was devastated. But that doesn’t compare to how sad I am today!

Backup QB Matt Leinart is expected to step up to fill in the role.  I am excited for Matty. He was an excellent QB at USC (where Mr Mark Sanchez just came from!) and I do love him. But no one can compare to Kurt in my mind. A great leader. A great QB. A great man.

Farewell.

The Kurt Warner Story

Unfortunately I have to cut, what was about to be an amazing tribute to Kurt, short, because of some crisis at my day job. Because apparently I am an on-call doctor now.

For more about Kurt and my love for him, check out SportsMan of Style: Kurt Warner and Sporstmen of style: Arizona Cardinals

Also, AJC.com has a great tribute farewell piece about him too!

And of course, ESPN’s Goodbye Kurt Warner piece

steelers win! the new catch!

craziest touchdown catch ever!!

steelers win 6th super bowl

start of 4th: pitts 20-7

2min left: pitts field goal, 20-7 steelers

technically roughing the punter. unneccessary roughness call against arizona. seriously, worst rule ever. steelers had scored field goal—foul gave them automatic first down and attempt at a touchdown with 3 min left in third

7min left in 3rd. Roughing passer call against cardinals. reaffirming my beleive that this is a stupid stupid rule

Halftime score: 17-7 steelers

It was the longest play in Super Bowl history. No one has ever had a 100 yard return—it counts

controversey on the play. James Harrison ran it back. Did he make it or not? Trying to decide if ball or knee was on the ground before hitting the goal—there was no more time on the clock.

:18 remain in half, Arizona throws ball away, and the Steelers run the ball all the way back–100 yards—for a touchdown. I have to say, it was pretty freaking ridiculous even though I was going for the Cards.

“Warner in the post season has been fabulous” Madden’s words, not mine!

Fitzy is powering down the field!!!  cards keep advancing and making the first downs!

2:00 Cardinal interception!! wooohoooooo

On a side….it is sooooo cool to see Tampa on tv! And I get all startled every time they say Raymond James Stadium!

10-7 Steelers

8:30 remain in 2nd: TOUCHDOWN CARDINALS!!! WOOOO

_______________________________

The weather is warm (well to the visitors anyway). The beer is cold. The food is great. And the game has finally started!

I didn’t go to the actual game just so I could be here bringing you live up dates here from Tampa! That and no one would buy me a ticket!

But anway, prepare yourself for some interesting updates as the game goes on—and as I begin to really enjoy my Super Bowl Party!

Oh and I’ll also be updating some of the Super Bowl Commericals to Google first thing Monday Morning!

_________________________

First Quarter:

Steelers are currently up 3-0. I’m going to go get all settled in so I might miss a bit. But I will be back and I’ll be on top of all this!

The Super Bowl is  set: Steelers vs Arizona Cardinals!

1:11: Steelers with interception! They are going to the Superbowl!

4:24:

Pittsburgh Scores Touchdown! 23-14 with only 4 min to go!

Whole bunch of craziness! Flacco was sacked in one play and then the pass was picked off by some guy with the biggest poofball of curly hair you have ever seen! and I can say that because my hair totally gets like that without hair gel. Troy Polamalu….or something like that!!

9:26

touchdown ravens!!!! there was some foul on the play before—no idea what it meant or what it was but it moved the ravens 20yrs up the field. This is like that game Cups that Chandler made up in Friends or Bamboozled! All sorts of weird crazy rules and prizes!!!  Ravens within 2! 14-16

Entering the 4th Quarter:

After extensive…..research…..(prompted by Akirah from Quarter-Life-Lady and her love of the Steelers) I have reconsidered the facts and have decided to change my pick to The Pittsburgh Steelers. Nothing to do with score, I swear! They have hot guys. I just didn’t know before. Thanks Akirah!

3rd Quarter: encroachment call

according to wikipedia that is “Encroachment is when a defensive player enters the neutral zone and by his movment makes an offensive player jump.” Um….. okay. That sounds like something that needs to be called. STUPID RULES! See also: roughing the kicker.

We are at the half. A quick rundown of what’s going on been going on in the first half:

• Pittsburgh struck early, scoring their first field goal early in the first quarter. Score: 3-0
• They had another field goal with about six minutes left in the first. Score: 6-0
• The Steelers scored right away in the second quarter. Their touchdown came off of a 65 yard pass from the ugly QB Ben Roethlisberger. Score: 13-0
• The Ravens finally struck back right before the 2 minute warning with a touchdown! Score: 13-7

A whole lot of weird stuff happened after that. Amazing catches. And then a “roughing the kicker call” which has to 1. be the dumbest call in the world under and circumstance**and 2. so not true in this case. Kicker just fell down due to slippery snow.***

**Dumb because hello, it’s freaking football. Players get tackled. Deal with it you wuss.

Does anyone else find it really strange to see it snowing during the football game? I’m sitting here with windows open and a T-shirt…

Yeah baby!!! WOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am rocking on this freaking picks!!!!

Check back later or tomorrow for the full game recap!

Yeah they didn’t convert. Cardinals take over with under a minute to go!

2:00 warning: Philly fails to make it down the field. They are 4th and….well, let’s just say they are not  4th and Goal.

2:40 two point conversion good! arizona leads 31-25 if my math was right

2:53 ARIZONA TOUCHDOWN!!!!!

4:17

Arizona: First and Goal! Hightower powered down the field!

10:45 remain

WOW! The craziest touchdown ever by Philly! A major ball juggling that looked like a clown routine by Shawn Jackson (player name right???). It was crazier because of his dance into the end zone!

Philly takes the lead with 10:45 left to go!

2-pt conversion no good.

25-24 Philly!

NOT HAPPY! I’m going back to target…. they were winning the whole time I was gone. I better stop watching

Fourth Quarter Update:

Ok, sorry I missed live updating the other quarters but a girl has to grocery shop every once and awhile!

Cardinals dominated the game from the beginning and jumped to an early and commanding lead.

And then the Eagles woke up and started fighting back. They scored 13 points in 3:19.

A minute left in the 3rd: BAM! Phillies TD! Brought the score to 24-19 heading into the 4th! Extra point was no good. Kicker is apparently totally sucking tonight.

Right now they are trying to determine who has possession of the ball. Don’t ask!

Arizona picked the ball out of the air with 14:00 left in the game, take possession again!

Major interception around the 7:00 mark in the 3rd quarter and the C’s booked it down the field to the Panthers 25 yard line!

Resulted in field goal

Arizona 30 Carolina 7

Carolina has possession heading into the 4th and is in the midst of powerful drive down the field. They have, what, 15 minutes to catch up?

Come on C’s!

Carolina heads to the locker rooms down by 20 points!

I know I shouldn’t say it because I could jinx the game but Arizona is showing total domination across the boards!

Score: 27-7 Arizona