The American Spectator

AmSpecBlog

A Democratic Call

By Wlady Pleszczynski on 1.18.06 @ 1:51AM

Here's someone I bet you never see again referring an important NFL playoff game. Pete Morelli was the genius last Sunday who on review reversed an unmistakeable interception by Pittsburgh's Troy Polamalu, giving the Indianapolis Colts undeserved new life late in a game they otherwise would have lost right there.

But never fear -- Morelli has all the makings of a Democratic appointee to a federal court. The founding fathers of the NFL's challenge procedures, not to mention common law, established that no call can be overturned without "indisputable visual evidence" that the initial call was incorrect. So what did Morelli do? He not only ignored that basic understanding and common practice, but wrote new law out of whole cloth, claiming Polamalu failed to intercept if his knee remained on the ground when he subsequently fumbled after having clearly caught the ball.

Too bad for Morelli that the NFL's Supremes promptly overruled him on Monday. Would that Antonin Scalia had their clout.

topics:
Law, Founding Fathers