Via Examiner

By Burl Rolett

The interception that altered NFL history, solved a lockout and ultimately never existed. Part of a short series on the best moments of 2012.

2012 was a rough year for The Shield.

A botched bounty investigation wrecked Roger Goodell’s remaining credibility among the players; the Jets lost their iconic fan to the kind of hostile stadium atmosphere that's made NFL games R-rated events; and safety concerns continued to threaten football’s long-term viability. 

But the league's most memorable story came all the way back in week three, when Packers safety M.D. Jennings picked off a desperation heave by the Seahawks' Russell Wilson. 

With eight seconds remaining in the game and the Seahawks trailing 12-7, Wilson took the snap and rolled left. He set his feet and unleashed a 40-yard Hail Mary as time expired. Receiver Golden Tate pushed off of cornerback Sam Shields in the back of the end zone, managing to get a hand on the pass just after Jennings did. Tate wrapped his arms around the ball as the two went to the ground and the much-maligned replacement refs rushed in to make the final call of their NFL careers. 

“Touchdown,” signaled the side judge. The back judge at the same time signaled for a timeout, though the clock showed triple zeros. Packers cornerback Jarrett Bush, the only one to get the call right, signaled interception and touchback. 

The ruling on the field was a touchdown by the NFL’s simultaneous catch rule, a situation that ESPN's broadcasters claimed was not reviewable. They would have been correct if the catch occurred in the field of play. In the end zone, it was a different story. Yet the replacement refs were just as clueless, and the initial ruling was upheld. Seahawks win. 

The sports world had its next Don Denkinger moment. The judges from June's controversial Manny Pacquiao-Timothy Bradley fight, no longer the year's least competent officials, could relax. 

This call was far worse. 

The Cardinals could have gotten three more outs to clinch the 1985 World Series in spite of Denkinger’s miss, and boxers understand the inherent risk in letting someone else decide their fight.

The Packers, on the other hand, were just pure out of luck. 

As I sat basking in the chaos of that Monday night, I couldn’t help but feel a little giddy. Goodell had seemingly got what he deserved after weeks of fighting with the real referees, and Green Bay's misfortune catapulted my Chicago Bears into first place.



I called a Packers fan to simultaneously brag and apologize. The game cost him half a bag of sunflower seeds and his girlfriend, who was currently vacuuming seeds and shells off of her dormitory floor.

Eventually I became a little more empathetic. First for my friend, who had some serious damage control to do. Then for the gamblers who bought the then-tantalizing three-point spread the Packers gave the Seahawks. And finally, for the Packers. This game would undoubtedly have playoff implications. 

The loss dropped Green Bay to 1-2, with a tough road ahead of them. In a 16-game season, no team can afford to take a loss when they've earned a win; imagine watching your baseball team drop 10 straight thanks to two weeks of poor officiating. 

Sure enough, that early-season mistake left them a half-game behind the 49ers and the NFC's second seed by season's end. Now, rather than hosting San Francisco on a week's rest, they'll head to Candlestick Park and the 49ers' 6-1-1 home record. 

The Seahawks, meanwhile, are a different story. They barreled into the playoffs and have now won eight straight, relying on that old "three yards and a cloud of dust" style we'd been told was all but obsolete in this pass-happy league. It's part of a certain bravado that surrounds them, an arrogance that you can't help but hate to love. 

Maybe it's because they're tucked away in the Pacific Northwest, a region often ignored and far removed from the rest of the sporting world. Maybe it's because Russell Wilson is one of the more unlikely rookie quarterbacks to have made it this far. Maybe it's because head coach Pete Carroll is perpetually wearing the frat-boy smirk of a man dancing one step ahead of trouble. Whatever it is, the Seahawks have that magnetic swagger, the kind that draws people in even as they shake their heads in disgust. 

I can’t be sure whether Seattle carried that swagger into week three, but they certainly left with it. Asked postgame if he saw Tate’s “catch,” Wilson smiled, shrugged and chuckled to himself. 

“It was simultaneous, so tie goes to the runner, right?” 

After a two-season minor league baseball career, Wilson knows better. The phrase is a myth. The tie doesn't go to the runner, it goes to the umpire, the highly-trained arbiter entrusted with determining the game's crucial moments. That Monday night in week three, the umpire was so wrong it brought two warring factions back to the table. The NFL and referees resolved their dispute, the scabs returned to their high school fields and arena leagues, and normalcy returned. Both teams made the playoffs, and all seemed fixed. 

But unless the Packers take the scenic route to the Super Bowl, there will always be a question of what might have been. Or more accurately, what should have been. It’s a tiny asterisk amended to this NFL football season, and a classic sports story that will live on long after Super Bowl XLVIII.

Burl Rolett is a contributor for Began in '96. He writes regularly about the Chicago Bears for Grabowskis in Exile.

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By Adam Cancryn

A (mostly) factual analysis of free agent quarterback Matt Flynn.

There are questions galore this NFL offseason, what with Peyton Manning's neck and the fight for the No. 2 draft pick and the Cleveland Browns wondering what do to with a problem like RGIII. But perhaps the biggest mystery of these next few months is Matt Flynn, the mild-mannered backup quarterback turned one-game wonder turned coveted free agent.

We do know a few things about the 26-year-old Texas native. He backed up noted sleep apnea victim JaMarcus Russell for two years at LSU before taking over and leading the Tigers to a national championship. He got drafted by the Green Bay Packers in the seventh round. Once there, Flynn showed the natural ability to hold a clipboard without losing that pesky pen that goes with it, competently directed the second-team offense, and was also lauded for the firm but comforting back pats he gave star quarterback Aaron Rodgers on the sideline.*

Flynn even got on the field a few times during regular season games, and managed not to throw up, line up behind the left guard, or generally embarrass himself, which is always a plus.

Then, after Rodgers went down with a concussion late in the 2010-11 season, Flynn got his first start against the then 11-2 New England Patriots. He promptly threw for 251 yards and three touchdowns in a gem of a performance that was improbably overshadowed by the most entertaining play in football — a 313-pound lineman rumbling 71 yards to set up the winning score.

No doubt scarred by that image, Flynn would undergo therapy and be unable to start another game until Jan. 1, 2012. Facing his fears head on, he tossed six touchdowns en route to a 45-41 win over the Detroit Lions and prominent fat linemen Ndamukong Suh and Corey Williams.

With no contract in place and still miffed that State Farm picked that two-left-footed jigglypuff B.J. Raji over him as their next Discount Double Check spokesman, Flynn secured his release and hit the open market.

That is all we know about the second-hottest free agent, more or less (likely less). And as far as potential multimillion-dollar investments go, that's not nearly enough, even for the NFL. There's not even any film of him hugging an old professor for analysts and coaches to study.

That leaves quarterback-starved franchises in a tough spot. On the one hand, Flynn has all the markings of a good NFL signal-caller. He's just 26, a decade younger than the stiff-necked Manning, yet still has the seasoning that draft picks like Robert Griffin III and Ryan Tannehill lack. In his limited playing time, Flynn has certainly proved more than serviceable. His performance against Detroit was masterful, leading drive after successful drive with the touch and decision-making of a veteran. The teams in the hunt for a new quarterback (Redskins, Browns, Dolphins, among others) never saw one quarter that good last year, much less an entire game.

Yet even in a league built on small sample sizes, Flynn's resume is too small to properly evaluate. During those two impressive games over two years, he had one of the NFL's best passing offenses at his disposal, and came into them fresh at a time when everyone else was nearing the end of a grueling season. Anywhere Flynn ends up this year would be a drastic step down in terms of the talent around him, and he would be expected to elevate that mediocre team to new heights in his first full NFL season. Whether he can throw for 480 yards and six touchdowns while fleeing defenders and searching for a receiver the likes of Greg Little or Jabar Gaffney is questionable at best.

What we can be sure of is that in a league where the gap between the best of the best and absolute worst quarterbacks is increasingly pronounced, some team will end up plunking down the cash to acquire Flynn, even if it's purely out of fear of starting the year with Caleb Hanie under center and dealing with a derpfest of 'What about Brett Favre?!?!' from the online echo chamber.

It's a backward system, akin to paying $8 for a cheeseburger without first finding out if it's from McDonalds or Five Guys. But the only way we'll ever find out just how good Matt Flynn is, is if he takes the field and answers that question himself.

*Some of the statements made in this article may or may not be true.

Adam Cancryn is an editor and co-founder of Began in '96, and a connoisseur of semi-factual athlete biographies.

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By Adam Cancryn

New York Knicks small forward Steve Novak has only one job: hit three-pointers.

About two minutes into the fourth quarter of the Sunday matinee between the New York Knicks and Boston Celtics, small forward Steve Novak took a pass from J.R. Smith, set himself, and calmly nailed a 25-foot jumper. It was his fourth three-pointer of the day, and his 113th in a season that ranks among the most specialized in NBA history.

To understand Steve Novak, it's best to first explain what he does not do. He does not play basketball, at least not in the traditional sense. He rarely dribbles or passes; Novak is utilized just 18% of the time he's on the floor, and averages a meager 0.2 assists per game. Despite standing nearly seven feet tall, he does not rebound (1.6 per game), plays subpar perimeter defense and nonexistent interior defense. Creating with the ball is a foreign act, and as a result, Novak rarely draws fouls. The fact that he hasn't missed a foul shot in two years sounds impressive, until you realize that he's only taken 16 of them. By comparison, 21 players made 16 free throws in a single game last season.

But he does do one thing. Steve Novak hits threes, and he often hits them at the most opportune moments. In the drive-and-kick offense that the Knicks now employ under point guard Jeremy Lin, that skill is as valuable as ever. 

Novak has always played the role of three-point specialist. At Marquette, more than seven out of every 10 field goal attempts came from beyond the arc. That trend continued through his first four pro seasons, where Novak hoisted a three about 71 percent of the time he shot the ball, the highest rate in NBA history. 

The results have been similarly consistent. Novak makes threes at nearly the same clip he does two-point field goals (46.9 percent from three versus 51.9 percent from two this year), and in fact shot a better three-point percentage than two-point percentage during the 2010-11 season. 

Despite his shooting prowess, though, Novak never found a steady role with a team until this year. He spent time as a little-used role player for four teams, eventually getting cut by the Sacramento Kings. For those organizations, his three-point contributions simply didn't outweigh his deficiencies everywhere else. 

However, Novak appears to have found a home in New York, mainly because the Knicks already have an abundance of penetrators and paint guys. Where Novak's unwillingness to leave the three-point line was a weakness elsewhere, here it stretches the floor and gives players like Carmelo Anthony, Amar'e Stoudemire and Landry Fields more room to dribble and drive. If they get doubled inside, Novak is a reliable and dangerous outlet. Add in Lin, the distributor, and you have a well-balanced team and the perfect environment for Novak to thrive. Through 25 games, Novak has taken an unprecedented 80.7 percent of his total shots from three, and made those attempts at the fourth-highest rate in the NBA. 

Of course, balance is just one of many attributes needed to win in the NBA, and the Knicks are still tinkering. The signing of sharpshooter J.R. Smith was a tacit admission that Novak is one cold streak away from the far end of the bench, and Baron Davis' return has further crowded the backcourt. 

But Novak has held his ground by doing what he has always done, hitting three after three like a sweet-shooting savant. And when the Knicks need their next big late-game basket, you can be sure Novak will be sitting in the corner, waiting for a pass he can turn into the latest of his long-range daggers.

The Week Ahead (all times EST)- Your guide to what to watch-- and what to watch for-- this coming week

College Basketball- Championship Week
Gonzaga v. St. Mary's- March 5 at 9 p.m. (ESPN)
Pittsburgh at St. John's- March 6 at 2 p.m. (ESPN2)
Big East Tournament- March 6-10 (TBD)
Big 12 Tournament- March 7-10 (TBD)
ACC Tournament- March 8-11 (TBD)
Big 10 Tournament- March 8-11 (TBD)
NBA
Mavericks at Thunder- March 5 at 8 p.m. (NBATV)
Hawks at Heat- March 7 at 7:30 p.m. (NBATV)
Magic at Bulls- March 8 at 8 p.m. (TNT)
76ers at Knicks- March 11 at noon (NBATV)

NHL
Rangers at Devils- March 6 at 7 p.m. (MSG+)
Lightning at Capitals- March 8 at 7 p.m. (NHLNET)
Rangers at Blackhawks- March 9 at 8:30 p.m. (NHLNET)
Bruins at Penguins- March 11 at 12:30 p.m. (NBC)
Golf
World Golf Championships- Cadillac Championship- March 8-11 (NBC/TGC)
Baseball Spring Training
Washington Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper is scheduled to start against the New York Mets March 5 at 6:10 p.m. The game will be televised on MLB Network.

In the Kitchen- Tracking the major hot stove stories

• The Green Bay Packers have until 4 p.m. on March 5 to place the franchise tag on backup quarterback Matt Flynn or else allow him to become an unrestricted free agent. There are arguments to be made for either action, but the majority opinion is that Green Bay will cut Flynn loose unless they already have a sign-and-trade deal in place. If he becomes a free agent, the Miami Dolphins and Cleveland Browns are expected to take a hard look at him, among others.
• The San Diego Padres signed 24-year-old outfielder Cameron Maybin to a five-year extension worth $25 million, with a sixth year option that could pay $7 million to $8 million. The contract is the first extension longer than three years the Padres have given a player since Adrian Gonzalez and Chris Young in 2007, MLBTradeRumors.com said.
• The Texas Rangers also signed an outfielder, 17-year-old Dominican Jairo Beras. However, there is a possibility the MLB will nullify the contract because of questions about whether he is 17 or 16 years old. If he's 16, he's ineligible to sign.
• Catcher Bengie Molina has retired after playing 13 seasons for four seasons. Molina didn't play during the 2011 season, but had remained eligible until now. the 37-year-old finishes his career with a .274/.307/.411 split and 144 home runs.

Web Gems- The week's best, worst or strangest Internet sports finds

Only 19, Harper is dealing with expectations as the next big thing- The latest on Nationals phenom Bryce Harper and his adjustment to Major League life.

B.S. Report transcript: Barack Obama- Bill Simmons interviewed President Obama about a number of sports topics, including Jeremy Lin, Chicago sports and the stress of throwing out the first pitch.

UGA soccer player charged with stealing hashbrowns- "A University of Georgia soccer player is charged with trying to steal an order of hashbrown potatoes in her pants."

The Sacramento Bee's captivating images from the first weeks of MLB Spring Training.

Coming Up- What's next at Began in '96

• Tuesday: The NFL and the bounty system by Joe Schackman.
• Thursday: Breaking down the odd case that is Matt Flynn, by Adam Cancryn.
• Friday: Joe Schackman on the new playoff system in the MLB

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