MAKE tHE CAll, Go full-tIME

Yes, James Bradberry admitted it.

Third down, under two minutes to play, Kansas City 35, Philadelphia 35. Patrick Mahomes throws for the end zone, but it’s out of the reach of JuJu Smith-Schuster and for a split-second, it appears the Super Bowl will head for a crashing climax even if the Chiefs kick a go-ahead field goal.

Then we see the flag on the turf. Defensive holding.

Bradberry said later that, yes, he held, he just hoped it wouldn’t get called. After all, not a single holding penalty was issued by this officiating crew the previous 58-plus minutes. But this one was.

As you’d expect they would, the Chiefs burned most of the remaining clock, Harrison Butker converted a chip shot, and soon enough redand-gold-confetti was flying, instead of the green-and-white type.

By the absolute letter, it was the correct call. If Bradberry held, you flag it, whether it’s the first minute or the last minute. Makes no difference, right?

Tell that to tens of millions of viewers who, for 3 ½ hours, had seen the Chiefs and Eagles battle back and forth and were ready to proclaim this an all-time Super Bowl… only to have it sputter to the conclusion, rather than sparkle.

It sure seemed, to them, that the blackand-white stripes had inserted themselves into the drama at the absolute worst possible moment, strictly on a judgment call. This does not mean the Eagles go on and win, l From page 6 by the County at Wellwood Middle School. with the time left along with a single time-out. It merely gives Philly a chance to do so, leading to an outcome that, pleasure or pain, fans can at least accept.

Exactly one Super Bowl ago, the Bengals got flagged for a similar borderline call, prolonging the Rams’ game-winning drive, and the same nagging sense of what-if was left behind.

Sure, Roger Goodell can stand up at a podium and say officiating in the NFL is better than ever. However, it is still not as good as it can be, partially because it is not a fulltime job

Most NFL officials work other jobs during the year before traveling to games on the weekends – or Thursday nights or Monday nights or whatever other time the league wants its rat-

Whether by intent or neglect, they excluded the town of Manlius government, which is most certainly an important stakeholder in the conversation. We were not consulted for any of the scheduling, we expressed regret that it was scheduled during our town board meeting, and we did not receive a response when we shared that our Deputy Supervisor, Sara Bollinger, would miss town board to come and join the panel.

Sara and I co-chair the town’s first Comprehensive Plan project.

Maybe you’ve seen the picture of the event, where Sara and the town are not included on the projected slide of panelists and Sara is squeezed onto the stage near the table in a folding chair? Sara made sure she was there to represent residents.

As one of the few elected women in town government in the county, but part of a majority-women town board, this was especially discouraging. Let’s do better #workingtogether, with Micron and on every other issue.

H EAt HER wAt ERS

Coun C ilor, Manlius town Board Fayetteville

Caz schools should wait on turf project

To the editor: lARR y wE tz E l Cazenovia ings cash cow parked. That made sense in earlier decades when the season was shorter. Now, though, from preseason games in August to a post-season that now stretches deep into February, that’s seven months of work.

I read with interest the articles in the Jan 25, 2023 issue of your newspaper relative to Cazenovia College closing. Obviously, no-one knows yet the impact it will have on the town and village. I support the government’s taking an active role in trying the preserve as much as possible, but I was shocked to read that the school district still plans to “move forward” on the $11 million improvement to the athletic fields. I think it is irresponsible for the school to spend this kind of tax-payer money when we don’t know the impact the college closing will have on the community. I think that Superintendent DiFulvio’s report in response to this issue raised by a community member was weak if not misleading.

I urge the school district to delay implementation of these expenditures until after we know the impact the closing will have on the community.

Such a long campaign now inches closer to what we see in the NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball, where officials are full-time employees. Granted, they work many more games, but there’s also a tighter connection between those leagues and those officials, and less real controversy once championship season rolls around.

To be certain, this isn’t a question of money. The NFL has so much of it that it can easily afford pouring more resources into having crews work year-round and, by put- ting the time into it, emerge as better officials.

And you know who would like this most?

Players, coaches and executives whose very careers are sometimes affected, or defined, by the way games are officiated.

Everyone associated with this sport, or any other sport, will tell you that they just want consistency. Call it, don’t call it, but just keep it the same from beginning to end. There’s a far better chance to achieve this rare equilibrium if officials work at it on weekdays and weekends.

This is why what happened with Bradberry and Smith-Schuster went beyond a social media argument. NFL officials will gladly tell you how difficult it is to try and catch infractions in real time, and nothing will

PeT oF THe WeeK

change that reality.

Indeed, players say that there’s holding on close to every single play. It won’t get flagged every play, but catch it enough times, at least they know what to expect from a crew in a specific game. The way it was going between the Chiefs and Eagles, no wonder Bradberry thought his jersey tug would slide –for that’s what had taken place all game, officials observing and not throwing that yellow flag. Say a full-time official, and not a part-time one, makes that call. Eagles fans will still seethe and Chiefs fans will still rejoice, but all might find peace with it.

Phil Blackwell is sports editor at Eagle News. He can be reached at pblackwell@ eaglenewsonline. com.