Of the 11,926 plays from scrimmage through the first six weeks of the NFL season, the one that might best illustrate the absurd lengths to which we’ve stretched a sport’s very definition came at 11:04 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, Oct. 14, in front of one of the biggest television audiences of the year.
You probably remember the moment, late in the fourth quarter, when New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady took the shotgun snap, and first looked toward tight end Rob Gronkowski, then to receiver Chris Hogan, and then felt Chiefs linebacker Breeland Speaks around his waist.
Two and a half seconds after the snap, the play was dead, and everyone knew it.