The New Orleans Saints are at the Los Angeles Rams‘ 13-yard line with less than two minutes left in the NFC championship game. It’s third-and-10 and the game is tied at 20. The ball is snapped to Drew Brees, who looks to the flat and throws a pass in the direction of receiver Tommylee Lewis. But before the ball gets to Lewis, Rams defensive back Nickell Robey-Coleman hits the receiver and the pass falls incomplete.
No flag.
It’s a non-call that was likely the difference in the game. It should have been called for pass interference and a helmet-to-helmet hit, but the play was unable to be reviewed.
That won’t be the case next season as, mark my words, such plays will fall under the rules of instant replay.
The Washington Post reported on Monday the NFL will discuss whether to make pass interference penalties reviewable. The competition committee has historically been opposed to allowing reviews of judgement calls.
That’s going to change this off-season.
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Here’s why:
Player safety
This is a player safety issue, first and foremost. Not only was Robey-Coleman’s hit on Lewis pass interference, which alone can be dangerous, it was a helmet-to-helmet hit on a defenceless receiver.
Officials and coaches can use replay to review the spot of the ball. They can use it to put more time on the clock. Is that more important than reviewing a helmet-to-helmet hit?
During the pre-season, NFL officials threw a startling number of flags on anything that looked like lowering the helmet under the guise of player safety.
Players don’t deserve less protection now than in the pre-season because it’s the playoffs. Why is player safety less of an issue in the playoffs or in high-leverage situations at the end of the game? If player safety is truly an issue for the NFL, it must get egregious calls that put players in danger right given it has the technology to do so.
The NFL can’t claim it’s serious about player safety without reviewing and better enforcing those plays.
Momentum among coaches
The NFL is slow to change, and rule changes often need sustained momentum to get approved. This off-season will not be the first time that reviewing pass interference has been on the table. It’s been a discussion for a few years.
Who has been leading that discussion? Saints coach Sean Payton is on the NFL’s competition committee and has been calling for pass interference to be reviewable for two years. Following Sunday’s game, Payton indicated once more he wanted to impact change: “We’ve got plenty of technology to speed things up. Look, I’m on the competition committee, so hopefully that provides a voice. But, man, I hope no other team has to lose a game the way we lost that one today.”
Think Payton was motivated before? He won’t let the motion die easily after the result of the NFC title game.
Another big proponent among coaches to change this rule is Bill Belichick, who feels every play should be reviewable. That might be too radical, but having two of the best coaches in the league on the same side of a controversial issue could move the needle.
Owners are motivated
Players, coaches, general managers and owners are part of the competition committee, but all participants are not created equal. Players and coaches only have so much power. Owners enact change.
One of the league’s most powerful owners now is motivated on the topic. Team owners don’t normally release statements on missed calls. However, Saints owner Gayle Benson broke that trend on Monday.
I am thoroughly disappointed by the events that led to the outcome of yesterday’s game. Getting to the Super Bowl is incredibly difficult to do and takes such an unbelievable commitment from a team and support from its fans. No team should ever be denied the opportunity to reach the title game (or simply win a game) based on the actions, or inactions, of those charged with creating a fair and equitable playing field. As is clear to all who watched the game, it is undeniable that our team and fans were unfairly deprived of that opportunity yesterday. I have been in touch with the NFL regarding yesterday’s events and will aggressively pursue changes in NFL policies to ensure no team and fan base is ever put in a similar position again. It is a disservice to our coaches, players, employees and, most importantly, the fans who make our game possible. The NFL must always commit to providing the most basic of expectations – fairness and integrity.
Think about the revenue lost for Benson after the Saints didn’t advance to the Super Bowl for a chance to win the second title in franchise history. Money motivates change.
Protecting officials
The NFL has a vested interest in protecting its officials. There’s no better way to do that than to eradicate their mistakes as much as possible. Nobody is talking about how bad a call Robey-Coleman’s foul on Lewis was if the call is corrected.
The 2018 season was tough on officials as the NFL lost three senior officials in the off-season. Working in younger referees has been a challenge and the vast majority (all but 21) of league officials are part-time employees. The NFL went as far as firing an official mid-season for poor performance, an unprecedented move.
Nobody feels worse than that officiating crew when they are the talking point post-game due to a mistake. Referee Bill Vinovich’s crew was talked about more than Jared Goff or Sean McVay, and that’s a problem.
The NFL can give its officials some insurance by helping erase their mistakes.
Gambling
No sports league is more closely associated gambling and daily fantasy than the NFL. When gambling becomes legal and more mainstream that will be even more so the case. A New Jersey sports book offered a one-time refund after the Saints-Rams referee controversy, so these missed calls are already impacting the bottom line.
New school revenue via legal gambling will be a big factor in eliminating the old school reasoning for steering away from expanded replay. As soon as the league makes formal alliances with sports books and betting organizations, like the NBA and NHL has, they’ll have no choice but to do everything in their power to ensure the integrity of results. That includes overturning obvious calls that impact outcomes and lines.
The amount of transparency that will be necessary in order to maintain the audience’s trust will be high. That’s why plays like the one we saw on the weekend will be reviewed with a fine tooth comb, even if it means long stoppages and new game flow.
Everything is a judgement call
The NFL is weary of opening up the Pandora’s box of reviewing judgement calls, but the game is so fast and tough to officiate that everything is becoming a judgement call. After last season, the catch rule was changed significantly because it was unclear what did or did not constitute a catch. After controversy in high-profile games, including the Super Bowl, there was momentum and motivation to change the rule. This year, the rule was changed and there wasn’t much dispute over catches throughout the season.
The ability to review pass interference will follow suit in 2019.
There is a lot of talk on these issues now, but it’s been called inconsistently all season long. The NFL may or may not be interested in protecting players, but either way, it needs to protect the shield.
Pass interference and hits to the head are either spot fouls or 15-yard penalties. They’re too big to not ensure you get them right and too important to not ensure you enforce the rules as an active deterrent.