If watched Sunday’s game between the Broncos and Panthers, you witnessed two fumbles on Trindon Holliday’s 76-yard punt return for a “touchdown.”: One by Holliday before he crossed the goal line, and one by the officials who completely blew the call by not stopping the game for an instant replay review. Broncos’ coach John Fox addressed Holliday’s error in judgment on 850 News Radio KOA in Denver via sportsradiointerviews.com:
“He (Holliday) was pretty close two weeks ago as well, so right now he’s on a short leash as far as — we’ve told him now that he has to bring the ball all the way back to Jeff Rodgers, his special-teams coach. I did not notice it at the time and obviously they didn’t either. I don’t think there’s any doubt what would have happened, but it’s something that hopefully … won’t happen again. Fortunately it didn’t cost us seven points.”
The Broncos’ new arrangement with Holliday reminds me of James Caan making Omar Epps carry a football around campus in the 1993 cult classic “The Program.” Trindon Holliday has been an electrifying return man since his days at LSU, but the Broncos saved him from being out of football when he was released by the Texas in October. If Holliday wants to avoid being cut again, he needs to make sure that he’s handing plenty of footballs to Broncos’ special-teams Jeff Rodgers this season.