However, a player’s knowledge of the rules should be a factor in the overall process. It’s relevant because it shows whether he truly loves his sport or if he just plays for money and fame. It’s relevant to whether he can be counted on to do whatever is necessary to win — no matter if it’s in the first minute of the first quarter or in the final seconds of overtime.

For players like McNabb, it’s hard to conclude they truly love pro football. If they did, they’d figure out at some point before turning 30 that tie games can happen, even if they don’t happen often.

Here’s what we learned Sunday, when Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb declared with stunning nonchalance that he didn’t know an NFL game could end in a tie: Many pro athletes are motivated primarily by the fact they get paid a lot of money to do what they do.

How else can anyone explain McNabb’s ignorance of a rule almost all NFL fans can recite without advance thought?

As it turns out, several other Eagles didn’t know. Plenty of players on other teams also are saying they didn’t know, either.

The message? They care. But they don’t care. Not like the rest of us, who’d play pro football for free and routinely fork over big money to watch others do it.

McNabb + didn’t know about ties in the NFL = he doesn’t love football? There seems to be a lot missing from that equation.

Ben Roethlisberger said that he didn’t know there were ties in football, but Florio doesn’t mention him, or any players from the Falcons-Steelers tie in 2002 who admitted they didn’t know there were ties either. Maybe these players don’t know about ties because they only happen once every six years. Hell, thousands of players go entire careers without playing to a tie.

This is absolutely ridiculous that this is being made into such a big deal. The bigger deal is how the Eagles were even in this situation to begin with. They should have been running out the clock in the fourth quarter – not playing for overtime. Criticize McNabb for his horrid performance, but don’t focus on something as dumb as this. A gaff in the Steelers-Chargers game cost people roughly $64 million and Florio is writing about this.

McNabb doesn’t love football because he didn’t know there were ties? What an asinine thing to say.

McNabb has received a lot of criticism for not knowing the rule, but I distinctly remember after the Steelers-Falcons tie in 2002 that several players didn’t know about ties, either.

The real criticism here is that the NFL even has ties. I’m not saying the NFL should adopt the college football overtime system (although that would be fun), but at least play until somebody wins. Ties are ridiculous.

After throwing three interceptions in the first half of the Buffalo Bills’ 29-27 loss to the Cleveland Browns on Monday night, Edwards played like a scared schoolgirl the rest of the game. He constantly threw check down passes to Marshawn Lynch instead of going downfield and rarely attempted a pass more than 10 yards.

But it’s not fair to hang the Bills’ loss solely on Edwards. Rian Lindell missed a field goal in the closing seconds that probably would have won the game. Fred Jackson coughed up the ball in Cleveland territory. The defense allowed Jerome Harrison to bust off a 72-yard touchdown run on the first play of the fourth quarter.

It wasn’t just Edwards that lost the game, but he had more than enough opportunities to make plays and he didn’t because he was too scared. His offensive line gave him loads of time and replays showed that he had open receivers to throw to all game, but he just couldn’t pull the trigger. Have you ever seen a quarterback so afraid to throw downfield? His confidence is totally shot in the wake of Buffalo’s four game losing streak.

The Bills were a nice early season surprise, but their playoff hopes are fading fast.

Conversely, this was a nice win for Cleveland. Not only did Brady Quinn get his first win of his career, but the Browns also didn’t joke in the end. They finally played four quarters and while it got hairy in the fourth quarter, they finally closed a team out and won a tight ball game. (Of course if Lindell makes the field goal, all of this is a moot point and we’re talking about another massive Browns’ collapse.)

By now, most of us know what happened, but I’ll set the scene again for those who have missed out on all the hoopla.

Down 11-10 with five seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, the Chargers took possession at the 21-yard line. There, quarterback Philip Rivers threw a forward pass to LaDainian Tomlinson, who then flipped the ball backwards to teammate Chris Chambers, who then tossed the ball backwards to another teammate, but Steelers’ safety Troy Polamalu intervened, knocked the ball out of the air and recovered it on the 11-yard line. From there, Polamalu returned the ball into the end zone, which referees signaled a touchdown. Pending review and an extra point, the Steelers should have won 18-10.

But that’s not what happened. Officials did review the play and determined that it was in fact a touchdown. However, after reconvening, they determined that one of the Chargers’ lateral passes (the one Tomlinson threw) was an illegal forward pass and therefore the touchdown didn’t count.

No harm no foul, right? The Steelers would have won the game regardless and everyone involved can rejoice at the fact that no game in the history of the NFL has ever ended with an 11-10 score.

But the call wasn’t right. Even if LT’s pass was deemed illegal, the ball never touched the ground and therefore the play continues. The result of the play was an illegal forward pass, which the Steelers would have declined, and the touchdown should have counted. Head official Scott Green even admitted after the game that he and his crew “misinterpreted” the rule and got it wrong.

People may disagree, but this blunder is just as bad as the Ed Hochuli game because it proves that the replay system in the NFL is broken. The most amazing thing about all of this is that the officials in the Chargers-Steelers game actually spent time getting the call wrong. What happened if the Steelers were down by one and something fluke like this happened and it cost them a win? Can we safely assume that the officials would have gotten the call right if a win was on the line? I can’t, certainly not after watching how the officials eventually handled the actual situation.

Now let’s reintroduce the gambling ramifications, because obviously that’s the main issue here.

An estimated $100 million was wagered worldwide on the game. And approximately 66% of those dollars were wagered on Steelers. Had the touchdown stood, bettors would have cashed in roughly $32 million, but because of the officials’ mistake, it turned out to be a $64 million swing in favor of the bookies.

Some people don’t like gambling because they think it’s stupid to wager your hard earned money on a game. That’s fair, but don’t forget that some people consider gambling as another form of entertainment, just like going to the movies. I might be comparing apples to oranges here, but if you took your family to the movies and only got to see half of it because the projector broke, then you’d want your money back right? The projector cost you your money and entertainment for the night and that’s not fair.

Well, a blown call cost people their money (and we’re talking about more dough than the average movie ticket) and entertainment and that’s not fair either. Again, that might not be the best example but you get the point.

Don’t expect anything to be done about this though. Roger Goodell isn’t going to reverse the call just like he didn’t reverse the outcome of the Broncos-Chargers game that Hochuli blew. It was a mistake by the officials and I wouldn’t hold your breath hoping to get your money back.

But this is going to be more damaging to Goodell’s league than people think. I’m not one for conspiracy theories, but it’s certainly questionable that the Steelers were flagged 23 times to only twice for Chargers (one of those penalties was the infamous “illegal pass” call), and the end of the game resulted in a San Diego cover because they were 4 or 5-point underdogs at most major sports books.

People are justifiably outraged and calling for foul play. In the wake of what transpired in the NBA with Tim Donaghy, suspicions are being raised of the legitimacy of NFL officiating. With that much on the line, how can you blow a call after you first made the correct ruling, then reviewed it, then still made the correct ruling only to eventually make the incorrect ruling? It’s completely ridiculous and I don’t blame anybody if they think NFL games are fixed now.

For the record, I don’t think games are fixed and I certainly don’t think the end of the Chargers-Steelers game was some masterful plan to insure a San Diego cover. I think this was a massive mistake, but I highly doubt anyone got on the phone to the head ref to tell him to call the game a certain way. Too many jobs would be lost and I doubt it’s worth the risk.

But after watching everything play out, I can definitely see why people buy into conspiracy theories. And it’s too bad that this is mostly about gambling because the situation deserves to have some light shed on it. Instead, the mainstream media will bury the story because they want to remain hush-hush about the gambling world.

Even those who don’t bet and didn’t wager on the game witnessed an injustice. And maybe you didn’t lose money – maybe you lost a fantasy game or a football pool at work. Either way, what happened wasn’t right and the NFL is going to be the one that really pays in the end because it no doubt lost some fans due to this fiasco.

This was absolutely amazing and I still don’t know how he got his fingers under the ball enough to snatch it out of the air:

Catch of the year!

Pittsburgh still won the game regardless, but had the touchdown stood, the Steelers would have covered the 5-point spread.

Green, in a postgame interview with a pool reporter, said that call was errant — even though his explanation for the confusion was almost as confusing as the play itself.

“We should have let the play go through in the end, yes,” Green said. “It was misinterpreted that instead of killing the play, we should have let the play go through.”

Green said the confusion occurred because there was a misunderstanding about which lateral was in question.

“The first pass was the one that was illegal, but it only kills the play if it hits the ground,” Green said.

“That was incorrect to have killed it at that point. The ruling should have let the play go on. That’s just the way that it played out. We believe the second pass was legal.”

Green was asked why, since the ball didn’t hit the ground during any of the tossing, the officials decided after huddling that the play should have ended.

“We didn’t kill it on the field,” Green said. “After [the] discussion we decided … there was some confusion over which pass we were talking about and it was decided that it was the second pass that was illegal that did hit the ground and therefore we killed the play there.”

However, the officials realized afterward they erred.

“I know,” Green said. “The rule was misinterpreted.”

Well I’m sure people who bet on the Steelers can take comfort knowing that “the rule was misinterpreted.” This was one of the most bizarre situations I’ve seen in a long time and I don’t blame people for being outraged. The Steelers covered and they should have won the bet – plain and simple. And the worse thing is (besides people losing their money) is that they had the call right the entire time. They ruled touchdown, then took it off the board. They really worked hard to get the call wrong in the end.

I can’t prove it, but I know Ed Hochuli and Rex Grossman were in on this somehow.

Tony Romo was back in the lineup and while he did provide a boost to the offense, the Cowboys can thank their defense and Marion Barber for this win. Barber rushed for 104 yards (most of it coming in the fourth quarter) and essentially became the Cowboys’ “closer” when they took the lead with just over 10 minutes remaining in the game.

Dallas also got a tremendous effort from its defense, which not only held the Redskins to 10 points, but it also overcame poor field position after two Romo interceptions. (One pick wasn’t his fault – Washington intercepted a deflected pass after Terrell Owens allowed it to bounce off his hands.)

Getting nose tackle Jay Ratliff back was huge for the “Boys. He finished with two sacks on the night, including one that moved Washington back and helped cause a missed field goal.

The Cowboys still have a tough road to travel to make the postseason, but this win was massive. In their six remaining games, four of them are at home and their next two games are against the 49ers and Seahawks – two teams they should beat. If they can build some momentum heading into a rough final stretch of games – at Pittsburgh, vs. the Giants, vs. the Ravens, at Philadelphia – maybe they can grab one of the two Wild Card spots in the NFC.

As for the Redskins, they’re certainly not dead at 6-4, but they’re stumbling after losing their past two games. They have a similar stretch of games, but they do have to travel cross-country next week when they play the Seahawks, and they face tough defenses in the Giants, Ravens and Eagles over the final six games.

The NFC Wild card race is going to be a tight one.