Washington Commanders

Jay Gruden -- an NFL head coach who just tied -- didn't know teams could tie

Published Nov. 15, 2016 1:48 p.m. ET

Chris Chase

I think we all owe Donovan McNabb an apology.

On Sunday, the Washington Redskins and Cincinnati Bengals played to a 27-27 tie that ended after the Redskins botched a chip-shot field goal and threw a Hail Mary that would have been great if one of the NFL Films boom mic guys on the sideline had been eligible to catch it. After the game, Redskins coach Jay Gruden admitted something that seems more than a little unbelievable. (Look, I'm not advocating lying, but there's nothing wrong with not revealing everything, you know?)

"I don't know how to react. I didn't know it was possible to tie. There was a tie last week. ... I was like 'how heck did they tie?'"

The "last week" to which Gruden refers was the ugliness America witnessed last Sunday night when two Super Bowl contenders, the Seattle Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals, set football back 70 years in playing to a 6-6, touchdown-less tie. According to Jay, if not for that game, he wouldn't have known his game this week could end with a new column in the won/loss table, which opens up myriad possibilities about what could have happened over in London on the final drive if Gruden, I don't know, thought the game would go to a second overtime? Would have just kept going? Moved on to PKs? Been decided on a coin flipped by Prince George?

(Yes, there's the possibility Gruden was joking, but reporters on the scene made no mention of this, indicating it was said flatly. Maybe Gruden had developed dry British humour by osmosis? Either way, it's a horrible joke. "I didn't know my team was capable of sucking so bad that it'd come to this.")

Anyway, back to McNabb: He was correctly vilified back in 2008, when he admitted to not knowing about the end of the extra session. But since that afternoon, numerous NFL players have said the same after their teams finished deadlocked: Kelvin Benjamin, Andrew Quarless, numerous Green Bay Packers). McNabb should have been the beacon of reason. Instead, it was as if his pioneering efforts were all for naught. And anyway, in his defense, his 2008 team had the first tie since 2002 and only the second since 1997. Before that, you had to go back to 1989. Overall, there had been four ties in the 20 seasons prior to McNabb's.

While it's still patently absurd an NFL quarterback (or an NFL coach or an NFL fan or anyone at Wembley who was able to Google "what happens in an NFL scoreless overtime") didn't know games could end in a tie (especially when McNabb played in the league during that previous tie), it seems that he was merely the first of many (and if you assume that others just didn't speak up, probably one of dozens). Back then, he just should have known. Anyone who doesn't know today is just laughable.