The Setup
With two minutes left in the game and 1st and goal from the 1 yard line, the New England Patriots opted to punch the ball in, even with a 27-9 lead over the Detroit Lions and no timeouts remaining. The Patriots had opted for a field goal try on 4th down moments earlier, only for the Lions linebacker C.J. Mosley to jump into the Patriots long snapper, drawing a penalty and give the Patriots a first down.
The Retaliation
This series of events didn’t sit well with Lion’s center Dominic Raiola. At the end of regulation and the game well out of reach, the Lions decided to take a knee and let the clock run out and get out of Foxborough. But not before Raiola made a deliberate attempt to take a low shot at Patriot’s defensive lineman Zach Moore’s legs. This type of move is well known in football as one to try to injure your opponent. After the game Raiola was quoted saying “I cut him, we took a knee, so I cut the nose. They went for six . They went for a touchdown at 2 minutes. They could have took three knees and the game could have been over. It’s football. He wants to keep playing football, let’s play football. Not a big deal. It’s football.”
My Take
This is professional football, a multi-billion dollar industry. Not high school, not peewee, professional football, where the average NFL player takes home almost $2 million dollars a year. If you can’t stomach a team “running up” the score on you, then stop them. While its not always the best option to go for it like the Patriots did, due to added injury risks and such, there is nothing wrong in what they did. And to be honest, the NFL uses points and TDs, both independently, as tie breakers for the playoffs, so why wouldn’t you take the easy points? In the end, I believe Dominic Raiola looks bad once again and this is just another notch on his belt of dumb things he has done in his career.
Who is in the Wrong?
Between Patriot’s Head Coach Bill Belichick and Lion’s center Dominic Raiola, who do you think looks worse in this situation? Leave your take in the comments below.