Charger Backers Vomiting On Shoes. Then Feeling Good Again

With the score 11-10, Steelers and no time left on the clock the Chargers tried to pull a Cal-Stanford on their final play from scrimmage. Eventually, one of the lollipopped laterals got slapped from the air by Troy Polamalu and returned for a touchdown.

Humorous play? Sure. Unless you had a financial interest in the Chargers (wink). The spread was between 4 and 5 depending on where you found your number. The touchdown pushed all those Chargers winners into losers and - given the silent millions placed on NFL games around the country - had to cause a large number of clickers to be fired through flat screens. Never mind the defensive scores impacting fantasy football players who likewise have combined millions on the line.

Then, a booth review. And the touchdown, which to the naked eye seemed legit, was overturned. Without sufficient explanation. All that was said was that it was an illegal forward pass and that the touchdown was disallowed.

It smelled fishy.

So I rewound the tape and saw that the initial lateral that went from LaDainian Tomlinson to Chris Chambers was released by Tomlinson at the 25 but - because of Tomlinson's momentum - was caught by Chambers at the 27. Tomlinson's momentum carried him to about the 30 by the time Chambers caught the ball so it looked like a legit lateral but it wasn't. It was a forward lateral.

Better explanations are needed. Adding to the confusion was the referee announcing after the review..."There was an illegal forward pass on the previous play. The penalty is declined. Touchdown."

He put both hands in the air. Then stopped and yelled, "Nope!" And put both hands out to the side and jogged off.

Then when the teams were lining up for the extra point, the ref announced. "The illegal forward pass would have killed the play with no time remaining on the clock. The game is over."