The NFL can’t get out of its way with video replays and confusing rules deciding games and the NBA isn’t much better, but don’t expect anything to be done
Do you have an idea for a new sport that would feature some of the greatest athletes in the world, but instead of having the athletes decide the outcome in the final minutes, the game falls into the hands of officials and coaches? Then the American market is right for you. Yes, the United States, home to more than 300m people, seems to love sports that are at their worst at the very end.
Sunday night’s Steelers-Patriots matchup brought in the biggest TV ratings of the 2017 season, with 27m people tuning in to see which AFC power would get the inside track on homefield throughout the conference playoffs. It ended with 27m people, approximately a tenth of the entire US population, being reminded again that they have no idea what it means to catch a ball, one of the most elementary elements in sport.
Related: Seattle Seahawks fined $100,000 for violating NFL concussion protocol
I miss the good ol' days of the NFL -- like Super Bowl XII -- when everybody knew what a catch looked like. pic.twitter.com/mxsbo3BZ5a
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