Steelers Unlikely to Lose a Draft Pick

Steelers Unlikely to Lose a Draft Pick
By Ed Bouchette Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about 16 hours ago
http://sportsblogs.post-gazette.com/...s/201312050001
:steelershelmet:
Good morning,
Only the NFL can take something as simple as fining Mike Tomlin and turning it into a confusing mess. That’s what they did when they tacked on the possible loss of draft picks that “will be considered after the final order of the 2014 draft has been determined,’’ according to the league release on the matter.
But as Ray Fittipaldo points out in his story today in the Post-Gazette, after consulting a source at the NFL, the draft pick would only be changed if that play that possibly cost the Ravens a touchdown affects playoff tiebreakers. There is little chance of that.
The NFL then has determined that Jacoby Jones might have scored a touchdown had Mike Tomlin not stepped into his path. They wound up kicking a field goal. That four-point difference theoretically could mean the difference between the Ravens making the playoffs and not making them based on a tiebreaker way down the list of tiebreakers. Point differential rarely comes into play.
So that is why the NFL ruled that draft picks could be taken away or altered. Yet, because it was ambiguous in its statement "Because the conduct affected a play on the field, a modification or forfeiture of draft choices” will be considered, the NFL fueled all kinds of speculation as to what that might be.
Basically, it means nothing because Baltimore’s position as a playoff team is so highly unlikely to be determined by those four points. But the NFL should have just come out and said that.