Marc Kealey Online

I was in Miami last weekend with a couple of my pals.

We went to see the Miami Dolphins / Pittsburgh Steelers Game.  The start of the weekend could not have been more perfect.  Met at the airport in Fort Lauderdale with a stretch limo and a police escort to one of Miami’s best restaurants, we planned the next day perfectly. Ending the evening at Mango’s near Gianni Versace’s home was the quintessential Miami experience.

The next day, we headed to Sun Life Stadium in Miami, a perfect day was ordered and we had some of the best seats in the stadium.  I love football – especially the NFL. I’m a Buffalo Bills season’s ticket holder and am possibly the most forgiving fan they have – in fact my season’s ticket partner and I have the only hand knitted Bills sweaters at Ralph Wilson Stadium – but I digress.

The Dolphins and the Steelers are two of the best teams in the NFL.  The game was a good seesaw affair until the 4^th quarter when behemoth QB Ben Roethlisberger of the Steelers called his own number and rushed into the end zone only to be smacked by a Dolphin linebacker causing him to cough up the ball.  THAT was the start!  What happened next makes this particular play and, in effect, this game one of the more controversial ones in NFL history.

Getting a win in the NFL is a tough thing these days (unless you’re playing against Buffalo).  Parity among teams is at an all time high.  And the talent spreads to all positions on the field – including officials and electronics.  The pressure to call a game by officials has made the video replay a very important component of the game.  Help me understand this though, why would a referee make a call so blunderous as to earmark it as one of the more controversial calls in NFL history?  You’d have to be blind not to see that big Ben fumbled before the ball crossed the plane of the end zone and that a Dolphin recovered it. What’s even worse is that the referee ruled it inconclusive that Miami recovered the ball and gave the ball back to Pittsburg and they promptly scored a field goal that, in the end, gave them the game and the 2 points.

The end result was that Miami lost.

The weekend wasn’t lost though.  Miami is still an exciting town, the weather phenomenal and the scene a cut above, but boy, did I miss my Bills that weekend!