Peter King of SI.com suggests Carolina coach John Fox may have goaded Chucky into challenging a call only because the stinking Panthers' offense hurried to the line.

Joe generally likes SI.com’s Peter King a great deal. Sure, Joe has issues with some things he writes and stunts he pulls. But overall Joe thinks King is must-read for NFL fans, especially since Dr. Z may never return after getting hit with two strokes recently.

At any rate, in a recent King piece a reader asked how coaches determine when to throw the red challenge flag to challenge a play. King responded by explaining a Chucky challenge that Joe believes to be crazy.

Interesting question, and I understand how fans often look at coaches after challenges and say, ‘What a knucklehead! Why’d he challenge that one?’ Let’s use last night’s game as an example. Jon Gruden challenged a Steve Smith catch on the sidelines not because anyone up top said, ‘Coach! Smith was out of bounds!’ He challenged it because he had reason to think Smith might have been out of bounds, and with Jake Delhomme rushing the Carolina offense to the line to get the play off before the Bucs could see a replay, Gruden had to throw the challenge flag. So sometimes coaches challenge plays before they have a good feel whether they’re going to be right or wrong.

While Joe agrees with King that Chucky had every right to challenge that Smith catch because it was close enough, Joe thinks King is off his rocker that Chucky — or any coach — would throw the red flag because he sees the opposition’s offense run to the line to get a play off to prevent the red flag from being thrown.

Challenges are too valuable to waste just because a coach may think an offense is rushing to prevent him from throwing the red flag. Chucky, or any coach, would only throw the red flag when they think a call is wrong and not for any other reason.