Now this story should make you laugh. A few people have come out and admitted that they had no ideas there were/are ties in the NFL, and Hines Ward is one of them. Now you might say that since there are a handful of people now that weren’t aware of the rule, it might be plausible that a good bit of the NFL has no idea. Well in Hines Ward’s case, he really has no excuse. He actually played during the last tie in the league….

“No, I didn’t know,” Ward said. “I thought we were the last team to do it when we played the Falcons. I thought we just played it until you have a winner or something. It’s kind of weird now that you can still tie ballgames.”

Roethlisberger speculated many players didn’t know ties can happen because games are played to a conclusion in high school and college football. Also, a large percentage of current NFL players weren’t in the league when that Falcons-Steelers tie occurred.

If he had been standing on the sideline late in the overtime period Sunday, Roethlisberger said, he would have needed time to sort out whether a tie can happen.

“I think people are making too big a deal and are being too hard on Donovan because you’d be surprised, I bet at least 50 percent of the league didn’t know that at the time,” Roethlisberger said. “You’d be real surprised. I think people just assume that the quarterback should know it all and that everyone should know that stuff and it’s not necessarily true, because whoever thinks about that stuff?”

I agree with Roethlisberger on the fact that people are being too hard on Donovan McNabb, and that it really doesn’t ultimately matter because you’re still playing for the win. It’s just amazing how many people seriously had no idea that there were ties. Also, now that this has come to light, it seems rather dumb that the league wouldn’t play a second overtime period. I personally think ties in any Sport outside of Soccer make absolutely no sense, and we should just get rid of them. Especially in a Sport like Football where there are only sixteen games in a season.

A tie? Ward among Steelers unaware of tie rule (Yahoo Sports)

Comments are closed.