You seem like a smart guy, so your posts in this thread are blowing me away. Has Spygate made some Patriots fans so hesitant to point fingers at other teams (unless it's the Jets) that their judgment is clouded at best or deliberately wrong at worst? I really can't think of any other explanation. Reminds me of how some we're so quick to defend New Orleans and slam Gooddell like a broken record. I found a few posters' support of Incognito and the Dolphins to be pretty damn bizarre as well.,
Spygate has certainly made me hesitant concerning the role of popular outrage in how the league arbitrates and enforces rules. I note that the exact part of my argument you choose to quote, about Tomlin's right foot, we actually agree on.
You know, he may have, as robbomango suggested, seen Jones coming on the jumbotron, realized he was in a favorable position, and stayed there in order to affect the play. He may well have been doing this intentionally for games prior and we just don't have film of it yet. But what he did not do was stride onto the field or any other exaggeration of his movements. What this reminds me of is that Ed Reed / Deion Branch hit early last year. People on this board were calling Reed a scumbag, and saying he launched himself, helmet to helmet, made no attempt to avoid etc. I suspect some people approach such events like a lawyer: here is what I want to happen, how do I build my case? Gentlemen of the jury, the defendant is a liar and a scumbag who assaulted my client etc.
There's no way I step closer to an object I'm trying to avoid.
Using a football example first: the technique for a receiver stance is to have all the weight on the front foot, on the balls of the foot in fact, and to push off with that. Essentially the receiver is supposed to fall forward into his first step. The back leg is just supposed to swing forward; this motion saves the receiver a half-step getting off the line. This is literally the first thing receivers get taught in high school and college. Yet how many Pros execute it correctly on gameday? I mean, watch any game, you constantly see guys rocking forward off their back legs at the snap. We have a ingrained instinct to push off a wide-spaced leg to get going that's hard to break even with years of practice.
In several years of watching people jump out of the way of bicyclists on a college campus, I've seen lots of Tomlin-like reactions, or worse than Tomlin-like reactions (elbows akimbo, like they're trying to hit the bicycle before it hits them) and the bicycles weren't moving at 17 MPH either. That foot goes out there to push off from, and people just can't help it.
So you agree now that he does 3 things: 1) he is clearly in the white area during an ongoing play which is a penalty, 2) he makes a deliberate move to his right and toward the field of play with his left foot while his right foot is ON the line to the field right before Jones comes up on him and 3) he does indeed move his right foot onto the field itself before pulling it back the instant before Jones gets to him causing Jones to have to avoid him. ALL of these are penalties. It doesn't matter whether he has done it before, not done it before, intended to or not. Jones has stated he had to move to avoid him and was shocked to see him standing there (
sideline video). This needs to be addressed so that no coach ever does it again. They need to intentionally think, "Oh, I'm on the white I need to get off or its a 15 yard penalty."
Peter King addressed this yesterday. He was shadowing one of the refs before and during the game and heard them ask who their "get back" coach was for the game. Each team has a coach that is responsible for keeping players and coaches off of the white area during a game. So, its hard to say that the head coach doesn't know that he shouldn't be there.
Last part first: ref crews usually ask that question. First, they want to know somebody on the sideline is going to be concerned about that. Second, the get-back coach is informally allowed certain privileges in the white area so that he can get in front of people and get them back, as it is often hard to herd people backwards from behind, and the get-back coach is usually low-level enough that his presence out there would otherwise draw an immediate flag. Also they want to know who to complain to directly when they feel their working area is being infringed upon. Did Peter King seem surprised the ref asked that question, or feel that was damning evidence, a suggestion that the refs knew something was up?
First part last: yes, we agree, and Tomlin certainly deserved to be penalized. He even deserves to be fined heavily. But I am against the "we don't hang horse thieves for stealing horses, we hang horse thieves so that horses won't be stolen" angle. Without evidence of premeditated intent, I don't think straddling the sideline 60 yards downfield from where the ball was caught and having the ensuing play catch you in the ass deserves harsh teamwide penalties. Maybe they take a late-round pick as a show of power, I don't know.
