In case anyone missed it, the Dallas Cowboys and owner Jerry Jones seem to have a problem with their new 1.2 billion dollar stadium. How is that possible, you ask? Well, your guess is as good as mine to how anyone could be dumb enough to design a brand new football stadium that doesn’t set the scoreboard above the playing field high enough to not get hit by the friggen football in play!! Because that’s exactly what took place saturday night in the Cowboys 1st game in their suppossedly state-of-the-art stadium that is the so-called envy of every other major professional american sports franchise.
Tennessee Titans punter A.J. Trapasso struck the scoreboard in the preseason NFL game at Dallas Cowboys stadium saturday night when he let loose on a booming punt that soared into the Dallas night and struck the monstrous scoreboard. The officials originally ruled the ball in-play because they had not noticed the ball striking the scoreboard because their heads were watching the action on the field. After Titans head coach Jeff Fischer told the refs what had happened, the refs ruled the down to be replayed. Great, welcome to “ground rules” in the NFL like we have in these silly “domes” in MLB baseball. What a joke.
You would think that Cowboys owner Jones would own up to the oversight and agree that they messed up and that the scoreboard needs to be raised to prevent this from happening again. Afterall, even the Cowboys own punter Mat McBriar thinks that a punter with a 4.9 hang-time could easily hit the scoreboard during a game. But, oh no, Jones took no responsibility and instead said that the Titans punter was intentionally trying to strike the board. What? Well, this is what Jones said when asked if he thought the scoreboard needs to get raised:
“That’s not the point. How high is high if somebody just wants to sit there and kick straight up?
“If you look at how you punt the football, unless you’re trying to hit the scoreboard, you punt the ball to get downfield. You certainly want to get some hangtime, but you punt the ball to get downfield, and you sure don’t punt the ball down the middle. You punt it off to the side.”
The NFL’s director of officiating Mike Perreira told the Los Angeles Times that the NFL would look into the matter this week. The chief concern is that punters could intentionally try to hit the scoreboard to run out time at the end of a half. The time on the clock would not be reset if the play was replayed, thus giving teams an incentive to hit the scoreboard. Wonderful.
I would hate to be a Cowboys fan today. Not only do you have a head coach and quarteback that can’t be counted on to produce in the “BIG” games, but you have an owner that can’t even get his 1.2 billion dollar stadium built without messing something so obvious up. Good luck in 2009 Dallas…….you need it with that crew.