Apparently, the NFL isn't just a league in which almost anything goes on the field. Almost anything is allowed just off of it as well. Player arrests and transgression aside, there's also a degree of cheapness on the part of coaches on the sidelines that somehow got mixed in with the widely accepted "do anything to win" mentality.
On Sunday, the Buffalo Bills' were victimized by said ugliness when the Kansas City Chiefs called a time-out just prior to Rian Lindell kicking the game-winning 53-yard field goal. As a result, Lindell had to kick it again, and, about as easily predicted as the Bills' chances at making the playoffs this year, he missed. Now, that isn't because Lindell is a bad kicker. It's just that the chances of making a 53-yarder, let alone two, are about as slim as an anorexic just before she treats herself to her one meal of the day of a peanut and a leaf of lettuce. And Kansas City's time-out? It wasn't called to go over some last-second strategy as to how to avoid getting humiliated by the last winless team in the league... that WAS the strategy and it worked perfectly, with the Chiefs' Ryan Succop kicking the game-winner on his second chance of overtime. He had earlier missed a 39-yarder.
Now it isn't as if this "calling a time-out before the kick so the kicker has to kick the kick a second time and think about it all over again" strategy is new. In fact, it's been done to death. The first time you see it, like William Hung on American Idol, it's charming and seems genius. With each passing time it occurs, it gets increasingly grating to the the point that you wonder why hasn't this person been shot yet? Obviously I can't officially condone violence on all the coaches who have stooped so low as to try their hand at this brand of larceny, so at the very least this type of torture, especially for fans of the team blessed with the field-goal opportunity, should be made illegal... and Hung still shot. Just kidding. But it is still realllllly annoying. Case in point:
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