Dana Pennett O'Neil | Akers no fan of those FG-nullifying timeouts
DAVID AKERS is no stranger to mental manipulation. In 9 years in the NFL, the
Eagles' placekicker has been iced more than Walt Disney
and Ted Williams.
He accepts the timeout before the critical kick as part of the gamesmanship of the NFL, a
last-ditch effort by an opponent to preserve or prevent a victory.
But the latest method to freeze kickers, Akers believes, has crossed the line from gamesmanship to bad sportsmanship.
"It's bad," Akers said. "I think it takes some of the integrity out of the game."
What Akers and a lot of other people are crowing about is a loophole in the timeout rule now being exploited to the point that three times this season, placekickers have gone through with field goals only to learn
a timeout had been called.
Denver's Mike Shanahan first figured out that the 3-year-old rule allowing coaches to call timeouts from the sideline meant he could turn the officials into his whisper-down-the-lane best friend.
In the Broncos' game against Oakland, Sebastian Janikowski booted a 52-yarder that appeared to seal an overtime win for the Raiders. Only Shanahan had mouthed a timeout nanoseconds before the play began, negating Jankowski's field goal. Janikowski missed the second
attempt and the Raiders went
on to lose.
Incredulous and indignant, Oakland coach Lane Kiffin did the only thing he could. He paid the sneaky tactic forward, pulling the exact same stunt against Cleveland a week later.
"In the Raiders-Browns game, it looked like maybe they knew what was coming," Akers said. "But in the Denver-Raiders game, I don't think anyone knew."
Akers is right.
The rule does stink.
It's the same problem college basketball has. A kid gets trapped in a corner during a press and instead of getting hit with a 5-second call and a turnover, his coach bails him out from clear across the court,
signaling for the timeout.
Control-freak coaches have enough input into a game.
