Were Rich Gannon And Donovan McNabb Ever Roommates?

Man, as time goes by, Donovan McNabb is looking better and better about not knowing that an NFL game ended in a tie. This time, however, it was Rich Gannon who pulled a McNabb, if you will. A big difference though was that Gannon was in the booth at the time. Via Shutdown Corner

One year after McNabb infamously expressed surprise that professional games could end deadlocked, Gannon, the former Raiders quarterback-turned-CBS analyst, made a similar slip-up at the end of the Cincinnati Bengals-Cleveland Browns game, in which he was providing color commentary.

With seven seconds left in overtime, the Bengals called a timeout to prepare for the potential game-winning field goal, to be kicked by Shayne Graham(notes). It was an easy decision for head coach Marvin Lewis: Since the clock was running, calling a timeout allowed Graham and the field goal team to take their time instead of having to rush the kick. Gannon, though, took exception.

Why, you ask? Did he think a miss would give the Browns too much time to run a Hail Mary? Was it his belief that the timeout could unintentionally lead to a self-inflicted icing of Graham? Nope. Both those things would be somewhat reasonable (if still misguided).

No, Gannon didn't like the timeout because he thought that if Graham hit the field goal, it would leave too much time for dangerous Cleveland return man Joshua Cribbs(notes) to take back the subsequent kickoff for a touchdown. You know, that dreaded post-score overtime kickoff that has felled so many teams throughout history.

Gannon's partner in the booth, Ian Eagle, quickly and politely informed Gannon that the game would be over if Graham successfully converted the field goal, since NFL overtime is sudden death. Gannon laughed and apologized for his mistake. Awesomely, Eagle then asked if McNabb had infiltrated the broadcast booth. Nah, Ian, if that were true, Gannon would have vomited when the game got down to crunch time. (Rimshot!)

Wow. I understand that not many NFL games go into overtime, let alone end in ties, but you would think that at the very least that everyone in the booth would know the very simple rule that if tied at the end of the game, all NFL games will play 1 (and only 1) 15-minute period of sudden death overtime. I have to agree with a point AA made in that McNabb's ignorance is a little more excusable in that the Eagles under McNabb-Reid have played in few OT games (I don't have these numbers handy, but I would be shocked if the Eagles are not below average in the number of OT games played since 1999), whereas not only as Gannon played in many, but he is in the booth informing the general public on all of the rules and intracisies of football. I would expect him to be familiar with rare rules hardly come up at all, let alone the simple basic timing rules and procedures for an event that occurs 10-15 times a year.

NFL's overtime rules continue to confuse (Awful Announcing)