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.
At some point it needs to be about the 22 guys on the field.
If a player wants to wave for the timeout, clearly in view of the other guys out there, that's one thing.
But if a coach wants to whisper sweet nothings in an official's ear where no one but the extra TV camera can see him, that's another.
"I've had people call timeouts on us quite a bit," Akers said. "But now it's after the kick had been made, or at least theoretically after the kick has been made. That doesn't seem fair."
NFL execs have said they
expect the rule to be looked at,
