A seemingly innocent defensive touchdown as time expired, a touchdown that had no effect on the final outcome of the game, was the most talked about story in football on Monday.

Troy Polamalu’s score with no time left on the clock would have put Pittsburgh up 17-10, pending the extra point, but was instead taken off the board to make the NFL’s first ever 11-10 final score.

In a league that tries its hardest to avoid any links to gambling, a gambling story dominated the headlines after this. You see, the point spread was Pittsburgh -4 1/2, meaning that the non-existent touchdown covered the spread. Pittsburgh bettors all over Las Vegas thought they had a BS cover, while San Diego bettors were preparing their bad-beat stories for their friends.

Here’s how it happened.

Pittsburgh scores with just a few seconds remaining, leaving San Diego enough time for a kick return and one play. After a short pass to LaDanian Tomlinson, the Chargers attempted the new football tradition of never-ending laterals until they score. This one lasted for two attempted laterals before the ball was knocked to the ground, picked up by Polamalu and into the endzone. Touchdown Steelers.

Then, the referee went under the hood, ruled that there was an illegal forward pass, the penalty declined, and the touchdown was good.

Then, before the PAT, the refs got together once more, and ruled that the illegal forward pass hit the ground. This, by rule, makes the play dead. Based on their interpretations of what happened, the ruling was that the play was dead when the ball hit the ground.

The problem was, that the lateral that hit the ground was a legal lateral, not an illegal forward pass.

The NFL ruled after the game that the wrong ruling was made on the field and that Pittsburgh should have been awarded the touchdown.

But the really interesting part of the story didn’t become apparent until Monday.

After the league announced that the call was incorrect, there were stories all over the television and Internet about the wrong call, with many a reference to the point spread and the impact of the defensive touchdown in fantasy leagues.

Without knowing it, the NFL and the media admitted what many of us already knew and they always denied: The NFL’s success is based entirely on gambling and fantasy football.

I will say that again. The success of the NFL, particularly its TV contract and the ratings, are based entirely on people betting on games or participating in fantasy football.

The NFL denies this. They truly believe that people watch the NFL for the sport of it. The game hasn’t changed (at least not for the better) in many, many years. People are watching more now because of the drastic rise in the popularity of fantasy football and the ease of betting on games, either legally or illegally.

The NFL needs gamblers. They need fantasy nerds. It’s these people that have driven up TV ratings and have led to the success of the NFL Sunday Ticket. They know it, they just don’t want to admit it.

Have you ever wondered why the NFL has league mandated injury reports? Do you think it’s for the fairness of the game? If you do, you’re wrong. The injury reports are for gamblers. Nowadays, they’re also for fantasy nerds, but they’re more for gamblers.

If NFL gamblers and fantasy players were to boycott an entire season (impossible, I know), the league would be absolutely shocked by the lack of interest in their game. You would have tremendous interest in 31 cities, but crickets in the rest of the country.

Don’t get me wrong. There are people that love the sport and will continue to watch. There are true fans of the NFL. But over the course of a year, a league without betting and fantasy football would be a league that is deemed a failure and not worth the TV contract.

There’s not a whole lot the NFL can do for us degenerates even if and when they admit that they need us to survive. But acknowledging this dependence would be a start.

When a single play or bad call in the NFL can cause a $32 million swing worldwide, then the league should acknowledge this major issue.

And with this, more importantly than everything I just said, the government needs to accept that gambling is a major part of this country, and embrace it. There are billions of dollars a year that are bet illegally. Regulating and taxing legal sports betting online is the right solution. And add poker while you’re at it.

People are going to keep betting, no matter what. As long as they do, bookies, and offshore gaming companies will get rich. That is money that should be going into the American economy. The sooner the government accepts this, the better off we’ll all be.

Hop to it, Obama. Perhaps this can be one big bill with the college football playoff.

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