Just a couple of posts ago, I mentioned I was surprised to see that assistant coaches could call sideline timeouts, like Rex Ryan did Monday night, inadvertently erasing a 4th-down stop by his defense in the process. As it turns out, they can't.
Here's the relevant passage from King's article:
New England ball, fourth-and-1, Baltimore 30, 1:48 left, Baltimore up 24-20. At the last second before the snap, Baltimore defensive coordinator Rex Ryan calls timeout. The play went on, with Baltimore stuffing Tom Brady for a loss and, theoretically, that should have been New England's last gasp. One problem. Only the head coach is supposed to be able to call time on the sidelines. But in this case, the league has interpreted the rule on a last-millisecond timeout call that the side official cannot be responsible for seeing whether it's the head coach or another coach who calls time. So it's technically legal for Ryan to have called the timeout, and the league's point is the head coach is responsible for controlling his bench. In this case, Brian Billick has to be responsible for his sideline, and when Ryan calls time, the burden is on Billick to accept the call because it happened on the Baltimore sideline.
The timeout clearly should not have been given. Furthermore, the NFL's after-the-fact "interpretation" and King's blind acceptance of the explanation are pure, unadulterated bullshit. The side official cannot be responsible for seeing whether it's the head coach or not? Let me get this right, he's got the credibility to be able to say a play came up three inches short of a first down, he's got the credibility to call pass interference on a DB who's forty yards away, but he's not expected to be able to tell these two guys apart?
Bullshit. The timeout shouldn't have counted, and New England shouldn't have won. The NFL's weak CYA effort and the press' round-the-clock efforts to pander to the Patriots show their lack of impartiality and integrity.
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