THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, September 19, 1995 TAG: 9509190184
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Comment
SOURCE: BY JIM DUCIBELLA, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
James Washington, the flamboyant and outspoken safety of the Washington Redskins, knows what it's like to play for a team everybody expects to win. The Dallas Cowboys have that effect on people. Game officials included.
In Sunday's controversy-filled 38-31 loss to the Denver Broncos, he discovered what it's like to play for a team no one expects to win. Game officials included.
It would be easier to draw a pearl necklace from a box of Cracker Jack than prove NFL officials get swept up in a bandwagon mentality that help glamour teams stay, well, glamorous. Especially at home. But Washington didn't let the inexactitude of sidewalk psychology quell his strong opinion about the rules-enforcers at Mike High Stadium.
If you're not among the top teams, Washington claimed, ``You're not going to get any breaks. That's the golden rule. The refs don't expect you to win. The refs do their stuff out there.''
The bits of ``stuff'' that bothered Washington most should by now have been reviewed at NFL headquarters. Whatever explanation comes forth could vie for most interesting storyline of the new television season.
How will they rationalize the touchdown given Denver's Terrell Davis, even though Davis obviously fumbled at the 2-yard line and the ball was recovered in the end zone by Washington cornerback Tom Carter?
Umpire Bob Wagner, mere feet behind the play, immediately and correctly sigstem is supposed to work, referee and officiating crew spokesman Ron Blum explained later.
``We knew he fumbled in there, man,'' Washington fumed. ``But we're not going to get the breaks. Dallas and San Francisco get those breaks because they're expected to win. I know. I've been on the other side and now it doesn't feel too good.''
Washington wasn't quite as vocal on the second blunder, Michael Westbrook's touchdown-ruled-incomplete-pass. The rookie receiver beat Denver cornerback Ray Crockett in a corner of the end zone for what would have been a go-ahead Redskins' touchdown.
But back judge Al Jury ruled that although there was contact between the two, Crockett didn't make enough contact to propel Westbrook out of bounds. Replays showed differently and the two misplays combined to create at least a 10-point swing.
Finally, Washington was outraged by a pass-interference call against rookie cornerback Scott Turner, who was covering Michael Pritchard on a bomb into the end zone. Washington's wasn't consoled by the fact that the call was overruled on the field.
``They tried to call it on that guy,'' Washington groused. ``That could make or break a guy's career.''
While that's an overstatement born of emotionalism, there were enough little injustices before and after Sunday's Big Three - unduly generous spots favoring the Broncos and a 1-yard touchdown run by Aaron Craver that only head linesman Williams signaled - to give new meaning to Denver's fabled ``homefield advantage.''
Other than an oblique appeal for the return of instant replay on Monday, Redskins coach Norv Turner was strangely silent regarding these issues. He had his reasons.
Among them may have been the embarrassing way the defense goofed the game's final play.
With the Broncos just across midfield, out of timeouts and doomed to overtime unless they scored a TD, Rod Smith outmaneuvered the shorter and inexplicably alone Darrell Green for quarterback John Elway's 43-yard desperation heave.
It would have been tough for Turner to reverse the sentiment that any team so inept couldn't stop a play everybody in the free world knew was coming.
But Turner's silence goes beyond that.
The league is so concerned about maintaining public confidence in the credibility of the game that it slaps hefty fines on coaches for statements it considers treasonous.
There also are a finite number of officiating crews. Turner and the Redskins will see these guys again, probably sooner than later.
In football, the long memory can be as devastating as the long pass. What's done is done. Turner is in no position to have something he hissed in September come back to haunt him in November.
There's always a chance that, by then, he'll have a team everybody gives a chance to win.
Game officials included. by CNB