Just recently, there have been two major incidents - one in the NBA, one in the NFL - involving coaches pulling some interesting tricks to attempt to help their teams win the game. Jason Kidd, the head coach of the New Jersey Nets, intentionally made one of his players run into him in order to spill a cup of soda on the court to buy time to draw up a play for his team to run to try to win the game with a little under ten seconds left. The other incident was with the Pittsburgh Steelers' head coach Mike Tomlin, who is accused of intentionally standing on the field in the path of a Baltimore Ravens player who was running back a kickoff. Tomlin has called his situation an "inexcusable error", according to ESPN, while Kidd has admitted to intentionally spilling the drink, and has said he was "just trying to win."
Also recently, I read an article from ESPN on a former NBA coach who said that the trick pulled by Kidd was an old trick used by many coaches, as well as himself, and that there is no rule against spilling a drink, and that Kidd should not have been fined, especially the large amount he was fined ($50,000).
As far as the Kidd incident goes, I am not 100% sure how I feel about it. Part of me thinks it was a great strategy to get another timeout. The other part thinks that it is a very hard argument to make to say that it is okay to do such a thing. It is a difficult situation, and I credit him for having the courage to pull such a move.
In looking at the Tomlin situation, which occurred after the Kidd fiasco, I find it difficult to believe that it was on purpose. He is not an idiot, and he must have seen the fine that was given to Kidd for such an action. Also, if it were on purpose I feel that it is definitely not the same way of interfering with the game as Kidd. The Tomlin situation would be much more direct in impacting the game. Where Kidd was merely buying another timeout, Tomlin would be basically tackling the runner had he not jumped out of the way. A fine has not yet been placed on him, and he maintains his innocence regarding the situation.
