The NFL Needs Expanded Instant Replay to Rebut Charges of Game-Fixing

Week upon week, the Colts receive calls from the officials that result in Colts' wins and cause everyone in America to scratch their heads in amazement. Consequently, there is now an avalanche of discussion openly claiming that the NFL is fixed, rigged, manipulated and managed. Tim Donaghy showed us how easy it is to manufacture outcomes in NBA games. As both the NBA and the NFL are heavily officiated, it would be a simple matter for the NFL to manage games as the NBA allegedly does.

I was recently asked whether I thought instant replay in the NFL is a good idea. I responded that, yes, it is a good idea, but it doesn't go far enough. With holding and pass interference penalties having no standard for being issued, and since a single call decides victory, it is time for the NFL to enhance the integrity of the game and give reassurance to the fans that the contest is an honest fight.

To restore trust to the fans and to reassure us all of the legitmacy of the sport, each and every holding, block in the back and pass interference call needs to be subject to automatic official review. A panel of three reviewers should vote on the call, and their votes should be publicly displayed and archived.

Given these regular and inexplicable calls that inure disproportionately to a single team's favor, it's likely that some U.S. Attorney or some investigative reporter, somewhere in the U.S., would start to take a keener interest in the sport. Dan Moldea seems convinced that the NFL is fixed, but he doesn't have subpoena power or the power of the front page.

Many Americans have turned away from Sunday Football, because they doubt its legitimacy. I would think that the NFL would take a simple step to restore the image and integrity of the game. Since a single call determines a winner, it's important to get each and every call right. Let the refs know that someone has to sign off on their calls, and we might start to get less puzzling games.

Another Week, Another Hope For a Colts Loss

Let's all get a good hate going for the tax-sucking fascist Colts, the leader in public-option Football. Let's also hope that Manning isn't successful at running his favorite play, "50-yard automatic pass interference right, on three."

Go, Titans.

Quitting By Expanding

Obama says he needs 30,000 more troops and four more years in Afghanistan so he can quit the "war." This doublespeak is akin to telling your wife that you need to sleep with your mistress 20 more times in order to end the affair.

Ending the "war" in Afghanistan is easy. Order the troops home. Given the cargo planes and aircraft carriers at our disposal, all troops can easily be out within two weeks. The troops can swiftly be returned to civilian life, and the unconscionable and profligate "war" spending can be brought to an immediate and abrupt halt. It truly is as simple as that. The American Conservative ran an excellent article, last year, on this very process, though it discussed an Iraqi withdrawal.

Nation building is a failure, and our efforts there are doomed to an embarrassing and bankrupting end. Only our hubris convinces us otherwise. We are not Afghani, and we are not of their ways and mores. Whatever government or social order we craft will be of our hand and mind, not theirs, and will thus fit uneasily upon them, being vigorously shaken off the moment we depart.

Dangerously, so many Americans see the military as our national "home team" who we must cheer to victory. "Support the Troops" has become conflated to mean "We Must Win." Winning, as conceptualized by most Americans, is an overly simplistic concept that contemplates binary outcomes akin to this weekend's Football game. Our foreign wars, however, are not sporting contests with scoreboards, game clocks, rules and agreed methods of ascertaining a winner.

Every dead American and Afghani is another unrecoverable and morally unjustifiable loss, and every additional billion dollars added to our National Debt further drives America to the brink of dissolution. Throughout history, nations have learned that foreign wars of adventure deplete the treasury and drive the country into poverty. Our American arrogance convinces us that we are exceptional, immune from macroeconomic realities. We are going to learn a painful lesson in these eternal economic realities, presently evidenced by the sinking dollar and soaring metals prices.

To employ a cliche, the only way to win this game is by not playing.