# NFL Week 15 **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [December 15, 2008, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-week-15/477177 "2008-12-15T00:04:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2008, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-week-15/477177/41 "2008-12-17T17:35:26Z")
> [@Jules\_Andre](#): > > You don’t have to. That post was brought to you by one of the most unabashedly boastful homers on the boards. Take a wild guess which team he roots for. Me, an unabashedly boastful homer? Well, OK, I suppose you’re right.😃 ---
**Author:** ![Cuckoorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2008, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-week-15/477177/42 "2008-12-17T17:42:21Z")
This season has some drama! Like for example, how are the Vikings going to find a way to drop out of playoff contention? They might have to do something drastic like have the entire starting lineup get kidnapped by terrorists, forcing them to forfeit the remaining games and the playoffs. ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2008, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-week-15/477177/43 "2008-12-17T17:46:43Z")
> [@Cuckoorex](#): > > This season has some drama! Like for example, how are the Vikings going to find a way to drop out of playoff contention? They might have to do something drastic like have the entire starting lineup get kidnapped by terrorists, forcing them to forfeit the remaining games and the playoffs. Oh, you think it’ll take divine intervention? With the Falcons and Giants left on the schedule and the Tavaris-Ferrotte poo-poo-platter still spinning they can very easily miss the playoffs. Da Bears! ---
**Author:** ![HongKongFooey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c4cdca/32.png) [@HongKongFooey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HongKongFooey)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2008, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-week-15/477177/44 "2008-12-17T17:55:44Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > The Steelers are the “luckiest” team in the league when it comes to bad officiating. Oh they have quite a history. I can concede the Steelers got a break on that short-yardage call for the first, I think the refs felt pity on that one. And the big call for the TD, I still don’t know. It should be noted though, that James harrison is held on every…single…play. It’s all there on tape, his sack total could probably be doubled this year if teams had to play him clean. Actually, this last game, Adam Terry did as good a job on him as I’ve seen this season but there was still a ridiculous amount of holding. The Steelers have been on the receiving end of many bad calls. I still shudder at how close the botched Polamalu int call came to ending the SB run at Indy a few years ago. Several players have been fined this year for hits that were just tough football, meanwhile Roethlisberger has been drilled late several times and nothing has happened. ---
**Author:** ![Cuckoorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2008, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-week-15/477177/45 "2008-12-17T18:43:43Z")
> [@Omniscient](#): > > Oh, you think it’ll take divine intervention? With the Falcons and Giants left on the schedule and the Tavaris-Ferrotte poo-poo-platter still spinning they can very easily miss the playoffs. Da Bears! The Vikings rarely do ANYTHING easily. They have to make up for the outstanding performance against the Cardinals by having a catastrophically bad game against the Falcons. I’m thinking NFL records being shattered for badness. Like maybe on their first possession they line up facing the wrong goal and immediately march into the end zone. ---
**Author:** ![dawson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@dawson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dawson)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2008, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-week-15/477177/46 "2008-12-17T20:59:58Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > The Steelers are the “luckiest” team in the league when it comes to bad officiating. Oh they have quite a history. > > Question relating to this - if a receiver is in the endzone, making a toe-tapping grab at the sideline, and he catches the ball in such a way that his hands and the ball are outside the endzone, but his feet are in, is it a touchdown? In previous years, with the goal line extends to infinity thing, it has been, but I’m wondering if that has changed. How luck were they a few years ago when a bogus "roughing the kicker call gave Tennessee another opportunity to kick a field goal, thereby knocking the Steelers out of the playoffs? Or the infamaous “coin toss fiasco” in Detroit back in 1997 I believe? Or Jacksonville blocking a field goal with twelve men on the field, a fact proven by a photogragh Bill Cowher later shoved down the referee’s pants. Lots of luck there huh? The NFL has issued more apologies to the Steelers for botched calls over the years than to any other team. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2008, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-week-15/477177/47 "2008-12-17T21:19:40Z")
> [@dawson](#): > > … > Or the infamaous “coin toss fiasco” in Detroit back in 1997 I believe? > … It was 1998. The referee got that one exactly, 100%, totally [correct](http://www.referee.com/sampleArticles/2001/SampleArticle0101/headsortails/headstailstext.html). Nobody was “robbed,” Bettis just fucked up. The procedure was rightly changed so that the heads/tails choice has to be made prior to the toss, which is how it should have always been to avoid such situations. > [@](#): > > _…The NFL has issued more apologies to the Steelers for botched calls over the years than to any other team._ This is only true because the league doesn’t apologize to the Raiders. (and, cite?) ---
**Author:** ![dawson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@dawson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dawson)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-week-15/477177/48 "2008-12-18T04:59:09Z")
> [@garygnu](#): > > It was 1998. The referee got that one exactly, 100%, totally [correct](http://www.referee.com/sampleArticles/2001/SampleArticle0101/headsortails/headstailstext.html). Nobody was “robbed,” Bettis just fucked up. The procedure was rightly changed so that the heads/tails choice has to be made prior to the toss, which is how it should have always been to avoid such situations. > > This is only true because the league doesn’t apologize to the Raiders. (and, cite?) Ok, I’ll grant you the coin toss, if that is to be believed (it is on the internet after all:D) , and the league actually apologizes for the Raiders :p, and I’ll provide a cite if Senor Beef provides a cite for his statement 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-week-15/477177.md?page=2)