NFL Investigating Why Brandon Jacobs Was Inactive Against Arizona

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Due to an informal protest by the Arizona Cardinals, the NFL is investigating why Giants' running back Brandon Jacobs didn't play in their game on Sunday.

Jacobs had been listed as probable on Friday's injury report. However, the Giants deactivated him hours before game-time on Sunday.

Arizona is bent because they wasted time preparing and game-planning for a healthy Jacobs. Say what you want, but the NFL has teams fill out the injury reports for a reason and frowns on erroneous information.

When confronted about the allegations Giants head coach Tom Coughlin was a bit heated:

"I don't know what you are trying to stir up or what you are trying to say, but we did everything the right way," he said. "I really believed that he would play and then he felt like he wasn't going to be able to contribute. So then we logged every issue every day. So there was no hidden ... What was our mistake? Listing him as probable? We did think he was probable."

"Probable" usually means that he will probably play. If there is a question that he could play, that would be "questionable". If there is doubt that he will play, mark him "doubtful".

While I don't really believe that Coughlin was trying to screw with the Cardinals coaching staff, I do think he erred in how he listed Jacobs. He may really felt that Jacobs could play but he should have tabbed him questionable. It doesn't look good when you jump from probable to out in a span of a day.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

11-25-2008 @ 2:36PM

tspig said...

This whole thing is ridicuclous. The whole point of having a probable status is that you will PROBABLY play, not DEFINITELY! if you will DEFINITELY you play, YOU WOULDNT BE ON THE INJURY REPORT AT ALL...

11-25-2008 @ 3:23PM

Pete said...

They probably wanted to rest him for The Skins.

11-25-2008 @ 4:57PM

f5alcon said...

why are they complaining, the game wouldnt have been close if jacobs had played.

11-25-2008 @ 5:48PM

Anthony said...

Like falcon said. The cardinals should be glad Jacobs didn't play or else their defense would have had a lot more to deal with..possibly an injury. It was a probable situation..probable meaning maybe, maybe not. Arizona is just mad the Giants beat them without Jacobs. weird.

11-25-2008 @ 6:09PM

soulcitysigma1914 said...

ditto on all four previous comments. "probable = likely" IMHO "likely" is far from definitely, far from 100%.

Besides, I think it's a little ridiculous to just assume that if Jacobs were active, that he'd be the every-down or featured back. They could have easily made him active and still decided - due to their own gameplan - that Derrick Ward would serve as the feature back to catch Arizona off guard. There's been a lot of trickiness in offenses this year and this could have been another example of that. It would be like the Dolphins having Pennington active, but then having Ronnie Brown toss the ball around and take snaps to take the opposing defense (the Patriots in their first meeting this season) off guard

11-25-2008 @ 6:59PM

Oso said...

I know i got screwed...Brandon is my #1 RB in fantasy

11-25-2008 @ 8:03PM

Ken said...

What difference does it make! Strap em up and play............... Cardinals sound like whiners.

probable, maybe, questionable, possible, could be, maybe not............I mean geez

11-25-2008 @ 9:36PM

tom said...

If you told the Cardinals a week before the game that Jacobs wouldn't play they would be relieved that they wouldn't have to face one of the top 9 rushers in the NFL. After they lose they scramble for reasons why.

11-26-2008 @ 1:59AM

Ja said...

This is a pathetic article and cause. I don't hear you complaining about the Broncos, Patriots, Browns, Ravens, Texans, Redskins, Jets or Bears or any other team that had an injury report that didn't reflect the active/inactive lists on game day. Get a new job. I wish FleaFlicker never would have joined with AOL. Every article from the AOL Fanhouse is nothing but LAME!. I miss rotoworld.

11-26-2008 @ 8:29AM

Sports Fan said...

Tom Brady was on the injured report for years. So what's the big deal?

11-26-2008 @ 11:36AM

nick said...

I say the cardinals got off easy without him in there. That was just one less thing for them to worry about. I mean, do they think the Giants are one-dimensional without him?