Wednesday, January 10, 2007
When in Doubt Blame the Ball...Romo's Fault or K-Ball Sucks?
Is Tony Romo all to blame for his botched field goal hold and consequently the Dallas Cowboys playoff lose to the Seahawks this past Sunday? Maybe...But maybe not. After the Romo miscue, players have come out and claimed they hate the K-Ball, the ball used during special teams plays.
Apparently, although ordinary game balls can be practiced with throughout the week by NFL teams, K-Balls, "are off limits until shortly before kickoff." Since the balls are brand new they are especially slick and slippery.
"They're slicker than the plastic balls my kids play with," injured Philadelphia Eagles long-snapper Mike Bartrum said Tuesday.
So why do the K-Balls exist in the first place if everyone hates them?
The NFL introduced the K-Balls eight years ago after the competition committee decided teams were abusing their privileges and taking unusual measures to condition balls to fly higher and travel farther. Kickers and punters were accused of using strange methods to soften the leather, spread the seams and inflate the bladder. Rumors included instances of balls being put in microwave ovens, dryers and saunas.
Even David Akers empathizes with Romo..."Kicking balls are very, very slick," Akers said. "They have a lot of wax on them because they are brand new. You don't get to work them in very much, and you see a lot of that happening."
The 2006-2007 sports season could be remembered as "The Year of the Hated Balls", first with the NBA composite leather ball and now with the K-Ball.
Regardless of the slickness of the K-Ball, 99 out of 100 times the snap and hold are successful. That 1 out of 100 times was Tony Romo's fumbled snap and he has nobody to blame but himself, and he hasn't tried to blame anyone or anything but himself.
3 Comments:
If bobbled snaps were prevalent throughout the league there might be a case for that.
But they are not. So it was just a really bad play by Romo. I don't think many people will be buying that.
Yeah, if the balls are THAT slick, then this would be a little more prevalent. As it is, I doubt we'll be seeing Tony Romo hold snaps ever again.
No one will buy it except for hmm, ESPN...always the Cowboys appologists
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