Play it Again, NFL

The NFL has, in the past, had unfortunate off-field incidents on the eve of big games. Certainly the arrest of Atlanta Falcons defensive back Eugene Robinson for soliciting a prostitute and the mental meltdown of Oakland Raiders center Barret Robbins, both right before Super Bowls, proved to be sad and unwelcome distractions. But there may never have been an incident with quite the portent of the knife wound to the knee suffered by Indianapolis defensive back Nick Harper in a domestic altercation the night before his team's big game against Pittsburgh.

Because the following afternoon, with his wife under arrest on battery charges, Harper scooped up a fumble in the final minute of the game and was racing down the field for what would have likely been the winning touchdown--and the most glorious moment in Indianapolis football history. All that stood in his way was a backpedaling quarterback, which is usually the equivalent of no obstacle at all.

But somehow Ben Roethlisberger's desperate lunge tripped up Harper. And soon after, the Colts kicker, the best percentage booter in NFL history, jagted one wide--make that very, very, very wide--right. Indy, the prohibitive Super Bowl favorite, was out, its most ignominious stumble in a string of postseason disappointments. And one was certainly left to wonder if Harper's knee--the wound was described as an inch deep and a half-inch wide--prevented him from cutting back toward what appeared to be a sure path to the end zone or destabilized him so that he was tripped up rather easily by the one-armed tackle.

Perhaps it's better to credit Roethlisberger for saving the Steelers and, in this case, the NFL from, at the very least, embarrassment and quite possibly a scandal. Because a few days later the NFL made a rare admission that its referee had made a mistake in overturning an interception by Pittsburgh safety Troy Polamalu that effectively would have clinched the game for the Steelers. What would have been perhaps the most grievous officiating fumble in NFL history--if only because the call appeared so clear-cut to everyone, including the announcers, watching the replay--became instead just an awkward footnote to a game for the ages.

And I'd say there it should lie but for the fact that it was part of an overall pattern of egregious officiating during that crucial NFL weekend. The reversal of the interception was no more explicable than two other critical calls--or more accurately noncalls--that went the Colts' way that afternoon. On one, nobody blew the whistle on a pass interference, more mugging than marginal, that might have helped get Pittsburgh off to an even bigger early lead. The other came on an apparent offsides, when Colts players were actually in the Steelers' backfield, that would have given Pittsburgh a key first down when they were trying to run out the clock.

The cumulative effect led Pittsburgh's mouthy linebacker Joey Porter to surmise that the Polamalu call was a deliberate attempt--he used the word "cheating" to The New York Times--to propel the popular and TV ratings-friendly Peyton Manning-led Colts toward the Super Bowl. I don't tend to subscribe to conspiracy theories (though the grievousness of the error was further revealed when the NFL did not fine Porter for his breach of protocol.) And certainly not when the officiating was almost as bad in Denver, including a horrendous--and curiously belated--pass interference call that turned the tide in favor of the Denver Broncos against the New England Patriots. I have no doubt that if there were a conspiracy afoot atop the NFL, it would include helping the defending and dynastic Super Bowl champs along to a showdown with Indy. But every critical call went Denver's way. And in Chicago, the officials also appeared to blunder when they reversed a fumble call against the Bears, costing the Panthers an early touchdown that might have turned the game into a rout.