I’ll admit it, I was totally cheering for a tie yesterday in that Eagles-Bengals game. It just seemed so fitting for both teams, who look to be having futile seasons, to experience the ultimate in futility.

As the Bengals missed the game-winning field goal with 7 seconds left in overtime, I wondered how many blogs would run with the whole “a tie is like kissing your sister” headline. Then I started to think about that cliche. I’m not sure I agree with the premise, which posits that kissing your sister is some kind of neutral event. It’s a positive that you’re kissing someone, but it’s negated by the fact that it’s your sister.

I usually hug my sisters. And unless you’re in grade school, should you even be kissing your sister? I don’t know, I’m not sure I agree with the notion. I’d like to make a motion that we remove “kissing your sister” from the vernacular. We need a better way to describe the frustration of ending the game in a tie. How about “a tie is like kissing a girl but then waking up and realizing it was a dream” or “a tie is like kissing a girl with bad breath” or “a tie is like playing soccer”?

We’ll have to work on that.

I have to say though, one thing I didn’t expect was that some of the players had no idea an NFL game could end in a tie. Seriously. Here’s Donovan McNabb:

Wow.

As for that shady ending to the Steelers/Chargers game? Yeah, that was pretty bad. It takes a lot for me to levy charges of corruption against NFL Refs, and I’m not sure I’ll do it here. But for them to review a meaningless play after time had expired, and incorrectly overturn it, directly affecting which team covered the point spread? That looks awfully fishy. And it’s reason #482 why you shouldn’t be betting a lot of money on NFL games.

From VegasWatch:

“We should have let the play go through in the end, yes,” [referee Scott] Green said. “It was misinterpreted that instead of killing the play, we should have let the play go through.”

Green said the confusion occurred because there was a misunderstanding about whether Tomlinson’s pass or Chambers’ pass was in question.

“The first pass was the one that was illegal, but it only kills the play if it hits the ground,” Green said. “That was incorrect to have killed it at that point. The ruling should have let the play go on.”

Being a numbers geek, I was fascinated by the fact that this was the first NFL game to end with an 11-10 score in over 12,000 games. Maybe the refs wanted to be a part of history?

(h/t: Deadspin and VegasWatch)