By now, most everyone on the planet with access to TV, radio, phones, the Internet, carrier pigeons or smoke signals knows all about the weird ending of the Super Bowl. Certainly the sports media continues to flog the proverbial dead horse of how and why Pete Carroll and his Seattle Seahawks called a passing play with only one yard to go to win the game, rather than handing the ball off to running back Marshawn Lynch. As we all also know, the pass was intercepted and the New England Patriots are now World Champions.
In the last 24 hours or so, the play in question has been sliced, diced, dissected and analyzed in every conceivable way. Super slo-mo, different angles, the velocity of the actual pass, the reaction time of the defender, even how many times the football spun from the time it left Russell Wilson's hand until it was picked off. If researchers in the real world were anywhere near this thorough, we might have cars that get 100 miles per gallon and cancer would have been cured long ago. These sports stat zealots evidently missed their true calling in life. They could have made the world a better place for all mankind. Women too. Ahem.
But c'mon. In the whole scheme of things, it was just one play in one game. Sure, a lot of betting money likely changed hands on that one play, and it definitely made a difference regarding where a certain parade will be held in a few days -- but it hardly ranks up there with nuclear war or, God forbid, the Republicans and Democrats finding some common ground. Now THOSE scenarios would be BIG news.
Too boot, every theory imaginable has been put forth as to why the Seahawks called that fateful play. Some are plausible, while others sound like Doctor Seuss creations. Every one but the obvious has been hashed over. There's a very logical reason things went down the way they did. I give it to you now.
First, one has to harkon back to the events of the days leading up to the Super Bowl. What was the biggest story? Likely Marshawn Lynch and his press conference(s) when he absolutely stoned the media. The Beast did his league mandated "stage time", yet not only refused to answer any questions, but seemingly mocked the reporters with the same non-answer over and over again. Understandably, the media was not happy. They're not used to being treated in such a way. They have articles to write, deadlines to meet, and editors to please. How could they write stories when nothing was given to them to write about? So also understandably, the media roundly criticized Lynch for his behavior -- because that's all they had. Along the same line, few would doubt the NFL offices weren't exactly pleased with Lynch either. But he had technically followed the rules by showing up and "answering", so what could Roger Goodell and Co. do about it? If fining a guy for not giving straight answers in a press conference was allowed, every politician in the country would be broke. (Actually, that's not a bad idea, but such a concept is best left to others).
Now consider the last few critical seconds of the Super Bowl. It was second and goal from the one-yard line for the Seahawks. Let's assume a different outcome. Instead of the pass, they hand off the ball to Marshawn Lynch on second down, third down, and even fourth down, if necessary. Three shots for a bruising running back to gain one yard and win the Super Bowl. What are the odds of that happening -- or not happening? I dare say most would agree if it had played out that way, a parade would be happening in Seattle rather than Foxborough.
Tom Brady wouldn't be the MVP. It might well have been, you guessed it, Marshawn Lynch. He had already rushed for over 100 yards, and scoring the winning touchdown would likely have garnered him the honors.
And there's the rub. Instead of slinking back to Seattle as a loser, Marshawn Lynch would have been front and center at another press conference as the MVP. Lynch has clearly shown his disdain for such gatherings. Is there any reason to think he wouldn't have stoned and mocked the reporters yet again?
Given an event as large as the Super Bowl, and the aftermath wall-to-wall coverage which would be watched by over 100 million people, this simply could not be allowed to happen.
Bottom line? It was obviously a conspiracy. The fix was in. An edict from the NFL offices seems unlikely. Even the mighty Commish and his merry band of court jesters wouldn't risk such a thing, lest they eventually be exposed.
No, this had to come from a higher power. The real Almighty? Methinks He's got better things to do than telepathically suggest a dumb play in a football game.
So who was responsible? Ghosts. Lots of them. The ghosts of all the USC players Pete Carroll left in the lurch when be bailed after his "program" was exposed as being riddled with violations. The ghosts of people like Walter Payton that always did things the right way. The ghosts of former coaches at all levels that didn't believe in "piling on", much less laughing in the faces of inferior opponents. The ghosts of all them that have come and gone in the sports world but, even if great at what they did, never lost sight of how fortunate they were and always remained humble. Granted, the latter is an endangered species these days, but add them all up and we're talking about a lot of ghosts.
And who's to say all these ghosts didn't get together and collectively send an "altered states" thought to the Seattle coaching staff in crunch time? "Thou shalt be stupid on the next play and it shall cost thee the Super Bowl. Bwahahahaha.
Because we don't want to see another Marshawn Lynch press conference either."
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