One of the things I like about dour Giants Coach Tom Coughlin is that he's not much of an excuse maker, in my experience, but the explosion today of Giants fans talking about how they were robbed of victory by the refs against the Packers has gotten on my nerves. I thought that the officials did a pretty creditable job, especially compared with the game at Detroit. They decided that they weren't going to call jamming after the 5 allowed yards, which led to considerable complaining from Packers receivers, who were bumped, pushed out of bounds or out of the end zone by defensive backs, or simply run over in one or two instances.

Today, though, there's a Reuters piece that claims that Fox supplied a still photo to Tom Coughlin after the game that showed his tight end's knee clearly in the field of play on a disputed touchdown in the first quarter. That play was reviewed on video by the head ref, who saw nothing to overturn the on-field call. Obviously, as a fan, there are a lot of things that I'd like to be able to see that I can't, even though they're made available to the League, up to and including still shots of controversial plays. Whether officials should be allowed to use such shots is debatable, though hardly anyone I know would like to make the use of replays more time-consuming. That's not the question in this matter. The question is . . . why would Fox provide such a photo to any team?

I'd just as soon calls were made right. If it's true that such a still shot exists, I'd like to see it, too. However, if a television network is going to supply such materials to coaches, it seems to me that they would have to do so whenever such materials are available. And I don't think that the League wants to have to depend on their discretion to do so, do they? Meanwhile, CBS has picked this up, but doesn't permit comments on the piece.

What do you think?