The NFL has already admitted that the San Diego Chargers may have benefitted from a missed call in their Week 17 overtime win against the Kansas City Chiefs that sent them into the playoffs. When Chiefs kicker Ryan Succop shockingly missed a 41-yard field goal that would have won the game, the Chargers were lined up in an illegal alignment.
As of the 2013 season, teams are not allowed to have more than six defenders on either side of the long snapper on a field goal attempt. The Chargers had seven. A five-yard penalty should have been assessed and the Chiefs should have been allowed to kick again. Since they were not, Daniel L. Spuck of Mercer, Penn. has filed a motion in court against the NFL.
Spuck is urging the US District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania for a “temporary emergency injunction” on the basis that the Chargers should not have reached the playoffs. He claims that the game and replay officials were “negligent and fraudulent” when they missed the illegal alignment call. Here’s where it gets good.
Spuck was kind enough to present the court with some possible solutions to the problem. He said the NFL could suspend the playoffs up to 10 days, allow Succop to retry the field goal, or let the Pittsburgh Steelers — who would have made the playoffs if the Chargers lost — face San Diego on a neutral site to determine who advances.
As some of you may have noticed, the Chargers defeated the Cincinnati Bengals in the opening round of the playoffs. They will face the Denver Broncos this weekend. Did the officials miss the call? Yeah, but it happens. It wasn’t even the only call they missed in the Chiefs-Chargers game. It’s kind of too late to go back and change it. Sorry, Daniel. The show must go on.
