RUSH: Here’s Rich in White Plains in New York. Welcome, sir. I’m glad you waited. Hello.
CALLER: Hey, Rush. How are you?
RUSH: I’m just fine, sir. It’s great to have you on the program.
CALLER: Mr. Snerdley says that I should talk about football, and it’s not Open Line Friday. You’re the general. I’m just a foot soldier.
RUSH: You want to talk about football? Go ahead.
CALLER: I wanted to talk about politics. Actually, I had an epiphany while I was listening to you talk about Scott Walker. Did you notice that Scott Walker took on the teachers union and he won? He’s doing well in Wisconsin. Christie took on the teachers unions, he won, and he’s doing well in New Jersey. John Kasich, on the other hand, took on every civil servant and got beat. I find that interesting.
RUSH: What’s that got to do with Colin Kaepernick?
CALLER: (bitter chuckle) Why did Colin Kaepernick have to go into the end zone? Hey, Rush, how much time was left on the clock when he threw that pass?
RUSH: I’m gonna have to take a wild guess, I don’t know, 36 seconds?
CALLER: Was it that little?
RUSH: It wasn’t long. He didn’t have minutes.
CALLER: Well, do you think it was enough time? They would have only had a one-point lead, okay, and you would have left yourself open to something.
RUSH: They had to score a touchdown. They had to go to the end zone. There was no other way. They didn’t have time to kick a field goal, run for an onside kick, and come back down. They had to get to the end zone.
CALLER: I’m thinking he could have used the clock a little better with more strategic passes and score with absolutely no time left. But the other controversy in that game —
RUSH: That play ended the game, if you’ll recall.
CALLER: Oh, yeah. I know.
RUSH: So there wasn’t a whole lot of time left.
CALLER: I’m just… I thought there was more time. My recollection was there was more time and that he didn’t have to go into the end zone. That was my recollection.
RUSH: Well, I don’t remember. I don’t know if it was fourth down. If it was fourth down, they had to go to the end zone. They were close enough I don’t think that… Look, nevertheless, there was so little time. They had to score. It was the only hope they had. There’s no finesse time left, and Kaepernick went with whoever he felt most comfortable with, and he went with what I guess they think is their “hands receiver,” Crabtree. You never know. It could be that they had only thrown at Richard Sherman, the cornerback, one time previously. They might have run the risk and figured that Sherman’s head wasn’t in the game. They hadn’t used him, hadn’t thrown at him all day.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Now, just to expand on my point, there was a time crunch there, I don’t remember the game situation. I don’t know how much time. All I know is — (interruption) Okay, I was right, 40 seconds. That was it. It was third or fourth down. That play ended the game. That interception ended the game. So at 40 seconds, third or fourth down, I think, you know, people said, “Why did he go to Sherman?” Sherman is admittedly the number one cornerback. He set the record for the most interceptions in the NFL I think the last two years consecutively.
It could well be that they might have just rolled the dice that Sherman’s head wasn’t in the game. They’d only thrown at him one time in the previous three hours. And on that play he was called for holding. Now, I know it doesn’t make sense after you know Sherman the way you’ve gotta know him. “What do you mean, his head wasn’t in the game?”
If you’re sitting out there, it’s the last play of the game, and you’re thinking they’re not coming to you because they haven’t come in your direction the whole game. The 49ers could have thought this, is my point. It could have been some of their strategy, “Okay, let’s go to Crabtree because maybe Sherman’s playing off.” Who knows. (interruption) Yeah. Yeah, holding in the end zone would have put it on the one — well, pass interference would have put it on the one. Holding would have been a five-yard or half distance to the goal line, because the game can’t end on a defensive penalty. Maybe they were shooting for that. Who knows.
But it could well be nothing more complicated than Crabtree is their hands receiver, and Harbaugh said, “I’m gonna go with my best receiver. I don’t care who’s covering him.” Could have been any number of reasons to explain it. Look, it wasn’t a bad call. This the kind of hindsight, “Why go to Crabtree with Sherman –” Well, you didn’t think that during the game. You didn’t even know who Sherman was. (interruption) What? Yeah, I think the NaVorro Bowman fumble recovery, I think where we’re headed on review is that every play is gonna be reviewable. A fumble that does not involve an end line or an out of bounds line, the recovery fumble cannot be reviewed. That’s the current rule. And that fumble did not involve an end line, the touchdown or an out of bounds marker, so it wasn’t reviewable. But I think that was such a blown call.
But, don’t forget, karma was at work. The football gods were at work, because the Seahawks did not score and, in fact, lost the ball on a turnover three or four plays later. So the NFL is breathing a huge sigh of relief. If the Seahawks had gone and scored after that, that’s all we’d have been hearing. Richard Sherman would be competing with that for the top news item coming out of that championship game, ’cause that would have been the refs once again blew something big that resulted in perhaps a team winning on a bad call, and that would have been horrible PR. But that was all wiped out when the Seahawks didn’t score on that bad play, that fumble recovery that wasn’t, ’cause they lost the ball themselves four or five plays later or three or four plays or whatever it was.
Related Links