Tony Sparano has requested that the NFL review the Ben Roethlisberger fumble that resulted in the Steelers’ win by one point on Sunday.
“I just want to hear an explanation again, that’s all,” Sparano said in a news conference. “I don’t think it’s going to change, so, I mean, I think the explanation that I got yesterday is the one that I’ll probably get.”
I can’t fault Sparano for trying, and I agree that he has a very legitimate beef here, but I think he’s right that he’s just going to hear the same explanation again. I don’t think the NFL can possibly change the decision now, since there isn’t definitive video evidence that the Dolphins recovered the ball. There might have been if the officials had tried to find it at the time, but they didn’t. The Dolphins say that one of their players, Ikaika Alama-Francis, recovered the football, and I actually believe them, and I still don’t see how the referee, Gene Steratore, could have done anything different when he reviewed the play.