The NFL has fined 49ers offensive coordinator Mike Martz $20,000 for comments critical of the officiating after the team's loss to the Arizona Cardinals on Monday, Nov. 10, a league spokesman said.
In comments to CBSSports.com, Martz said referee Tony Corrente's crew was responsible for the 49ers' 29-24 loss because they failed to communicate with the 49ers sideline after a booth challenge late in the game. The 49ers say they could not hear Corrente's explanation over the stadium public-address system that the ball was being moved from the 1-yard line to the two-and-a-half yard line for the final play of the game.
Martz had already called a fullback dive to Michael Robinson. The play was stopped a yard short of the end zone.
"It cost us the game," Martz told CBSSports.com senior writer Clark Judge on Nov. 11. "We go to the 1 -- or the half-yard line -- then spike the ball when, all of a sudden, officials tell us they're going to look at the replay. While they're looking at it, the ball stays at the 1. So we send in a play. Then, when they make their decision, they move the ball back to the 2½ and tell us they're going to start the clock on the official's wind.
"We couldn't change the play. We had to go with what we called. If it would've been at the 1, we would've made it. But they moved it and didn't give us any time. So what are we going to do? If they would've moved it to the 10 we still would've had to run the play that was called. We got screwed because of the spot, first and foremost."
Later that day when speaking with reporters who cover the 49ers, Martz toned down his comments.
"Look, first of all you can't hear anything that the officials say on the sideline," Martz said. "So you could say this, you could say whatever you want, nobody on the sideline can hear that official over the speaker. You can't hear. That's why it's a courtesy for officials to come over and explain it to you on the sideline (because) you know you can't hear that. And it would give you an opportunity to clarify things with the head coach to let you know those things. It just didn't happen that way, we lose."
He added, "They didn't do that and then again, they're not obligated to do that. But after 17 years in the league, anytime anything like that's happened they've always done that. For some reason, they elected not to do that and that's their prerogative. That's certainly their prerogative, isn't it?"
When asked about the officiating in general in that game, Martz declined to comment because he said he did not want to risk a fine from the league office.
"No, no, no, no. I'm not going to make any comment about that," he said. "No, no. I'm sure they got comments for how I called the game, too.
"I'm not in the position to take that fine right now."
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Click here for VP of officiating Mike Pereira's comments about how the final moments of that game was officiated.
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UPDATE (10:30 a.m.): It wasn't until long after I posted this report this morning that I found out CBSSports.com, citing a source, had already reported the information about Martz's fine. I had been in contact with the league office every day in the past week to find out the status of any possible fine. This morning, in answering my daily inquiry, the league informed me of its ruling.
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York should fine Martz 50K for stupidity. We wasted so much time because Martz wanted to change personnel groups, then changed his mind and couldn't get it in fast enough.
It blows my mind that the NFL is dealing $20,000 fines to anyone who suggests the officials are anything but perfect, despite officials having a downright terrible year, and also reinstating Pacman Jones again.
So the moral of the story is that assault is fine, don't bother learning your lesson, but don't dare say the wrong thing?
What a bogus fine. He explains what happens on the sideline and get fined $20k for it? What's next? Coaches using the word "official" during a press conference?
C'mon Goodell. Leave the coaches and players alone. I know the economy is tough, but pretending to care about borderline comments to make $20k pure profit is absurd. I hope Martz appeals.
Me = confused. Gore's run was 2nd down, right? Then as the 49ers were (very slowly) lining up to spike the ball to stop the clock on 3rd down, the official review came down. So, that 3rd down spike play didn't happen, right? Was Robinson's 1.5 yard rush, 3rd or 4th down? If it was 3rd down, why didn't the 49ers just spike the ball again, stop the clock, gather their thoughts, and call the right play for the situation?
Great point, unfortunately.
It was third down and yes, they should've spiked the ball to stop the clock. Martz already had the call in so no need to do so.
Going back to the stoppage for review. Since the Niners already spiked the ball after Gores run to stop the clock, was it legal for the officials to blow the whistle and revert back to the previous play to review? I thought that once a play is run, you cannot challenge or review the previous play.
Oh and if Martz knew he would be fined, he should've commented on how bad the officiating was that night.
Rame,
the run was on 3rd down. The video summary on NFL.com says 4th down but that is false.
The canceled spike play started with four seconds. A Spike takes two or three seconds. The clock stopped with two seconds. So the spike took two seconds. The clock could have stopped with one second instead.
If they had spiked the ball after the replay, when would the clock have stopped? The clock starts on the whistle with four seconds. You cannot snap on the whistle. Reaction time costs a second. So they could have snapped the ball with three second on the clock. The spike lasts two or three seconds. In the end there could be one second left. Or time could expire on the spike play.
Spiking the ball (again) could have ended the game.
9erDino,
on my recording of the game I can hear the whistle a split-second before the snap. So the review started before the next snap.
Rame - they just came out of a 2 minute and 55 second stoppage of clock because of the booth review of the Gore play. Why would we spike the ball to stop the clock again? If we were not ready after almost a three minute free timeout, then something is wrong with this football team. It was the right time to run a play (and yes it was 3rd down) just the wrong play call - simple as that.
9erDino - The Spike play never happened as the booth review was called down to the field 1 second before Hill spiked the ball. For the booth review to be called, the ref’s had to ensure the Niners were going to get a play off before time expired as they would not want to give them a free timeout to prevent the game from ending. When it was clear Hill was going to spike the ball with about 3 to 4 seconds left, they called the booth review right before he could spike it. Therefore, that play was averted and technically never existed. Its over - let's move on to the Cowboys.
What I don't understand is why the 49er's are so hell-bent on using Robinson on 3rd downs? It's getting too predictable. Every team knows they are going to do it, especially in a goal line situation.
Thanks Dirk and Mike for the clarification with the boot review.
On to the Cowboys, let's hope Manusky continuously brings heat on Romo. I can't wait to see the battle between Clements and Owens. Hope Manusky lets Clements loose and let him play his game. Owens is way too powerful to be playing 10 yards back.
Matt, the Az. game ran over the time slot so I didn't get to record and review the last few minutes of the game. Since the league says they did everything right,
THE BIG QUESTION IS:
How much time actually elapsed between the time the officials spotted the ball at the 2 1/2 and the ref started the clock ?????? For my own peace of mind, does anybody out there know ??????? know?????????????
I don't get it Ed Hockley is willing to say that he blew some calls who the hell does Pereira that he's above reproach. it's okay to get calls wrong it's human just suck it up and move on. It's ridiculous to think that the people involved wouldn't feel cheated when events out of the ordinary occur. This is similar to the Phantom foul call in the NBA Finals game between Mavs-Heat giving the heat the go ahead FT with just seconds on the clock. Refs aren't expected to make all the calls all the time, but they can own up and say yea I messed that one up, learn, and move on. and to fine Martz 20k for this is not beyond reproachful it's disgusting and really serves no purpose except beating a man down for expressing his thoughts on the officiating.
There were 4 seconds left on the game clock after the booth review. According the the refs, Gore was down at the 2 1/2 yard line and since it was a running play, the clock kept running, only to be stopped with 4 seconds left for the review. Gore's run started with 20 seconds on the clock. The Niners did run a play to stop the clock but as mentioned, the refs waved off that play second 1 second prior in order to review Gore's run. The clock was stopped for the booth review and would only start again on the refs signal for the next play. By then the Niners were already lined up ready to go. As soon as the refs motioned for the clock to start, Hill handed the ball off to Robinson, game over. 4 seconds is only enough time to run one play, regardless of whether it was a pass or run. Hope that brings some closure for you.
9erDino, thanks,
but what I'm really looking for is how many actual seconds the 9ers had to change their call between the time the ball was first placed on the 2 1/2 after the review and when the ref started the clock.
I would say that by the time the ref placed the ball in for play to the time and the time he started the whistle to wind the clock is no more than 2 to 3 seconds. Not enough time for the call to come in from the booth to change the play. It happened very fast.