Anticlimax
At 4:14 p.m. on the last day of the year, which also happened to be the last Sunday of the 2006 NFL season, which may be the last in Bill Cowher’s tenure as the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals were tied, 17-17, at the end of regulation time.
After the Steelers called and won the overtime coin toss, CBS’ cameras switched to a view of their sideline, where Cowher stood at the center of a huddle to rally his team into the fifth quarter. With that sight on the screen, a CBS announcer cut in to announce that due to contractual obligations, the broadcast would soon switch to another game.
Shouting at the television had no effect, since my voice was no match for the “secondary markets” rule, which requires that Baltimore Ravens games be shown in the Washington broadcast market. As Gregg Easterbrook (who, despite his other failings, is a voice of reason on the NFL’s outrageous broadcast contracts) explained in November:
Dan Masonson of NFL headquarters told TMQ, “A secondary market is a TV market in the team’s home territory with stations having signal penetration back to within 75 miles of that team’s stadium.” Since Fed Ex Field and M&T Bank Stadium are within 75 miles of each other, the cities must see each other’s road games.
I was watching the game in Arlington, Va., so the NFL and CBS figured I would be more interested in the beginning of a mostly meaningless game between Baltimore and Buffalo than in the sure-to-be-exciting, overtime ending of the Steelers-Bengals game. Here’s what I saw as waited impatiently (and fruitlessly) for Yahoo’s Gametracker to load on my computer:
- Commercials.
- Idle, pre-kickoff chatter in Baltimore.
- Kickoff, which the Ravens received and returned to their own 31-yard line.
- Rush for 1-yard loss.
- Rush for 6-yard gain.
- Pass for 5-yard gain.
- Timeout. (!!)
- Pass for 10-yard gain.
At 4:21 p.m., the announcers of the Ravens-Bills game announced that the Steelers had defeated the Bengals.
Several minutes after that, the broadcast cut to a highlight clip of Ben Roethlisberger’s 67-yard, game-ending touchdown to Santonio Holmes. The play ended the Bengals’ playoff hopes and prevented the Steelers from finishing the season with a losing record (the win gave them an 8-8 finish). It sure would have been nice to see, if only as consolation for such a disappointing year.
Instead, the season ended with characteristic frustration. Double yoi.
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