A Giant loss has enough blame for everyone

Trey Junkin retired again this week, one step ahead of a lynch mob.

Sad.

Because sports needs more guys like Junkin, not fewer. There's already enough weasels and too few instances where somebody will err, then stand up and admit it. Junkin did, and he'll probably hear about it the rest of his life.

A week ago, the New York Giants lured Junkin out of retirement at age 41, handed him a check and turned over the long-snapping duties for last Sunday's playoff game at San Francisco.

Anybody who thinks it's easy to propel a football between their legs to a spot at least 7 yards back -- and sometimes twice that far -- should try it. Then, try it with a slobbering defensive tackle breathing into your face mask, or better yet, a linebacker with bad intent and a two-step head start trying to rip your head off the nanosecond after the ball is snapped.

Still, Junkin blew his assignment -- twice. The second time, on the final play, it doomed the Giants' try at a game-winning field goal. Afterward, he beat himself up so bad it made you flinch.

"I'd give everything in the world, except my family, to have stayed retired so these guys could have had a chance," Junkin said.

It was his fifth bad snap in 19 years of playing. After watching it on replay, good as his word, Junkin promptly re-retired.

"All I can see is the ball hitting the ground. That's all I can see," he said. "I'm done. I'm gone."

Now here's the beautiful part: Not only is Junkin not the only guy who blew an assignment; if you're making a list, he doesn't even make the top 10.

For one, there's Giants holder Matt Allen. He could have fallen on the bad snap and called timeout, leaving enough time for another field-goal attempt. Or, Allen could have run outside the tackle box (which he did) and thrown the ball out of bounds, stopping the clock with a few ticks remaining. Instead, he panicked, threw a bad pass and pointed a finger at Junkin.

And then there were the seven NFL zebras on the field, backed by a quartet in the instant replay booth. They correctly spotted the Giants' ineligible receiver downfield, but somehow missed a blatant pass interference call against San Francisco. Had they called offsetting penalties, the Giants would have had another chance from the same spot. (Like Junkin, the league at least had the grace to own up to its mistake.)

Then there's New York coach Jim Fassel, who could have been a little more assertive about the missed call at the end and a lot less conservative in his play-calling before that.

There's the Giants' defense, which surrendered a 24-point lead in 19 minutes, and the offense, which failed to extend it, the coaching staff that didn't prepare the players, the team leaders that didn't step forward, the guys who lost their composure ... and on and on.

One 49ers player blew his assignment, too, but wound up boasting about it. Defensive end Chike Okeafor pulled down the Giants' Rich Seubert just as Allen's desperation pass headed his way. Okeafor said he expected the refs to throw a flag, and that he'd take the same chance again.

"I wasn't going to let him catch it, score and be over then. I was at least going to make them use another play, give us another chance," Okeafor said.

If our games reflect some larger reality, this one tells us that cheating is preferable to losing and only chumps own up to their mistakes. The only member of the Giants besides Junkin who rejected the easy alibi was general manager Ernie Accorsi.

Asked about the blown call at the end, Accorsi said, "The officials didn't blow a 24-point lead. The officials didn't mess up the field goal in the first place."

Some people will argue the way to prevent this from happening again is to "expand" instant replay -- as though one more official or camera (some 20 were already in place Sunday) will guarantee getting it right.

The league knows better.

"There's always going to be the human element and people make mistakes," NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said.

"That's not to say it's acceptable or that we're excusing mistakes. We've worked very hard to get the level of officiating where it's at. But if the question is 'Can anybody guarantee a perfect game?' the answer is always going to be 'No."'

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Jim Litke is the national sports columnist for The Associated Press.