Donovan McNabb is getting skewered in the national and local media this week for admitting that he didn't know that NFL games could end in a tie.
Do I think he and every other NFL player should know this rule? Yes, I do. But the fact is, he didn't. And several other players have admitted to it as well.
Per PFT, Ben Roethlisberger told a Pittsburgh radio station that he thinks half the NFL probably doesn't know the rule.
“People are making too big of a deal of this,” Roethlisberger said, according to Tim Benz of WXDX. “They’re being too hard on Donovan. I’d bet you fifty percent of the league didn’t know that at the time. You’d be surprised. People seem to think that the quarterback should know it all, and that everyone should know that stuff. And it’s not necessarily true. Because who ever thinks of that situation? How often does it ever come up? And the rules change so often that you never know what happens.”
To me, Donovan's real crime was admitting his ignorance of the rule publicly. As he's finding out, it's just not worth it. The only thing that will save him is more players coming out and saying they didn't know either.
Hines Ward's Steelers played in a tie game in 2002 against the Falcons. Yet, he doesn't know the rule?
“I thought we just played until we had a winner,” Ward said. “It’s kind of weird now that you can tie ball games.”
Everyone thinks the players should know rules like this, but the truth is, everyone has gaps in their knowledge. Regardless of the subject matter, every one of us could be asked an "easy" question and not know.
I know some people that I consider to be extremely intelligent that couldn't label each state on a blank map of the United States. Do you know the date of D-Day? Do you know the role of the Watergate in "Watergate?" Do you know the address of the White House (I admit, I just forgot the numbers. I know it's Pennsylvania Ave, but I was thinking 1200, not 1600. I'm stupid)? The engine on your car has how many cylinders?
These are just a few examples of things we should all know, but don't always. There are tons and tons of other things that we should probably know, but don't. Donovan just had the unfortunate experience of telling the whole world that he didn't know an important NFL rule. No one notices when you are watching TV on the couch with your wife at night and it comes out that you didn't know the name of the Vice President of the United States (I've seen it happen!).
We all have the gaps and we all have important information missing from our brains. Hopefully, more NFL players that didn't know the rule will come out and defend McNabb.
