Elvis Dumervil’s “Fax Gate” just latest sports technology fail
The ridiculousness of “Fax Gate” leaves many wondering how this could happen.
Is this real life?
Yesterday, the Denver Broncos made their second-biggest free agent signing of the offseason, getting Elvis Dumervil to accept a paycut and stay in the Mile High City.
Dumervil was delighted. Denver was drunk on daydreaming about their coming Super Bowl run.
Agent Marty Magid was dumb.
According to multiple people in the know, the Broncos sent the finalized contract offer – which Dumervil verbally agreed to – to Magid and Dumervil to be signed. They sent it back, via fax, after the NFL’s 2 p.m. MT deadline. 2:06 to be exact. That’s when Dumervil became a free agent.
How in the world, in 2013, could this have happened?
How could a player’s livelihood be effected to this degree?
How could a team’s crucial defender be taken away after agreeing to a new deal?
Why in the hell are we still relying on fax machines in the 21st century?
Maybe Magid couldn’t remember how to use the fax, with all the texting, chatting and emails he uses on a daily basis. Maybe Dumervil’s pen ran out of ink. Or maybe someone was trying to make a phone call while the fax was going through.
Whatever the reason, this entire fiasco is ridiculous.
But it’s far from the first instance in which technology and sports have clashed, resulting in fantastic fails.
Two months ago, the Colorado Buffaloes basketball team was robbed of a victory over the then-No. 3 Arizona Wildcats, when Sabatino Chen’s three-pointer at the buzzer was waved off following replay. Chen took the shot, and after looking at both video and photographic evidence, it’s clear the ball was out of his hand when the clock read zeroes. But the referees didn’t see it that way, and the Buffs ended up losing in overtime.
Another infamous replay gaffe came when Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler fumbled the ball away against the San Diego Chargers in 2008, only to have Ed Hochuli call it – incorrectly – an incomplete pass. Denver ended up scoring a touchdown and two-point conversion to win the game and Hochuli was suspended from refereeing any Broncos games for four years.
Look, refereeing has got to be one of the most difficult jobs out there, but that’s why they’ve implemented replay. There’s nothing more infuriating than a ref watching a replay and still getting the call wrong.
An even more glaring sports-technology fail came at this year’s Super Bowl, when a power outage knocked out half of the lights in New Orleans’ Mercedes Benz Superdome. America’s biggest spectacle came to a halt in what has to be regarded as one of the most embarrassing Super Bowl moments in the history of the game.
And who could forget Brett Favre, then playing for the New York Jets, sending penis pics to beautiful reporter Ines Sainz?
Not to mention the many, many instances of professional players saying something outlandish on twitter.
But it doesn’t just include players and referees, technology haunts sportswriters as well.
Bill Simmons, one of the best writers around, recently had his twitter privileges suspended by ESPN after calling their show First Take “embarrassing” and “awful.”
Similarly, FOX Sports writer Jason Whitlock, who’s constantly creating controversy, got himself into a mess when he tweeted about Asian American NBA player Jeremy Lin, “Some lucky lady in NYC is going to feel a couple of inches of pain tonight.”
And ESPN was in hot water when some late-night editor decided to run the racial headline, “Chink in the Armor” when referencing an injury Lin sustained.
Sports and technology are like oil and water; they don’t mix.
From players saying something stupid on twitter – or journalists for that matter – to referees blowing replay calls and a power outage at the Super Bowl, to “Fax Gate.”
For Denver and Dumervil, this has been a “bang your head on the wall a la Gus Ferotte” type situation, and both sides are hoping NFLPA President DeMaurice Smith can remedy the situation.
