An All-Football Tuesday

TigerBlog is a big fan of finding the most obscure possible situations that can occur in a game and knowing the rules that relate to them. 

Actually, make that the rules of the game and the rules of stat-keeping.

This is part of the reason he was so excited at the opportunity to be part of the NCAA men's lacrosse rules committee. The first thing he did after learning he had been selected was to read and re-read the rule book cover to cover. 

A situation came up in the Princeton-Lafayette football game the other day that he'd only seen once before, and that had been in an NFL game in the 1980s. What happens if you have a penalty called on the back end of a play whose front end is changed? 

In the 1980s, Lawrence Taylor was called for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for protesting a pass interference call. When the officials got together, they picked up the flag for the pass interference, which left only the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, which never would have happened had the call been correct in the first place.

That's the only other such circumstance that TB can remember until Saturday's game. Lafayette intercepted a pass, or at least appeared to, and Princeton was called for a facemask on the tackle. When the play was reviewed, it showed the ball had hit the ground, nullifying the interception. 

For a few seconds in the press box, TB wondered what would happen to the facemask. The referee then said that the penalty did in fact count, and Princeton was penalized 15 yards. 

You learn something new every day, huh? 

While the subject is football, guess who made his first NFL regular season reception Sunday? That would Princeton alum Andrei Iosivas, who caught a nine-yard pass from Joe Burrow in Cincinnati's 34-20 win over Arizona.

Iosivas almost had two catches, but he just missed getting two feet in on what would have been an extraordinary reception near the sideline. He continues to show that he has a real future in the league, probably on the Bengals, who are not going to be able to pay all of their current receivers moving forward. 

In other football news, don't look now, but the Jets have looked like they may actually have a season after all, even with Zach Wilson as its quarterback. After spending the entire preseason knowing he'd probably not take a snap all year, Wilson was thrust back into the starting lineup four plays in after Aaron Rodgers, the franchise's supposed savior, ruptured his Achilles. 

Wilson hasn't exactly been great, but he hasn't been awful the last two weeks either. This week is a huge test, as the Jets take on the unbeaten Eagles. 

And where would an all-football Tuesday be without a Princeton basketball alum. That would be Sean Gregory, now the exceptional writer who covers sports for Time Magazine.

Gregory, known as "Bones" to most people, was one of the members of the great Princeton Class of 1998, one that won three straight Ivy titles and two NCAA tournament games. 

His most recent piece for Time is a great one. It's a huge, in-depth and tremendous profile of Colorado football head coach Deion Sanders, whom you either love or hate (TB is in the "love" category, for full transparency). 

The story starts this way:

On an autumn weekend in Boulder, the sports miracle of the season is clearer than the blue Rocky Mountain sky. Whereas for years, the University of Colorado football team delivered Saturday misery—the Buffaloes enjoyed just four winning seasons in the past 20 years and finished 1-11 in 2022—Boulder now may be the hippest, happiest place in America.

That's great stuff. And remember — TB is measuring all writing these days against Fitzgerald. You can read the whole story HERE. 

Sanders is a wildly unique figure, and Gregory does an excellent job of capturing that uniqueness. If you're a sportswriter today, there aren't too any better assignments than this one, and Gregory was definitely up to it.

It's definitely worth the time, as it were.