NFL in new territory with interference reviews
The lasting image of an otherwise successful 2018 NFL season was of the missed pass-interference penalty in the NFC championship game that helped send the Los Angeles Rams, rather than the New Orleans Saints, to the Super Bowl.
The officiating blunder hung over the league’s marquee matchup and took some of the luster off a season of captivating play and recovering TV ratings — and it led team owners to take the step of making interference calls and non-calls reviewable with instant replay for the 2019 season.
So, all will be well, right? The NFL can only hope so.
While there now exists the safety net of instant replay to, presumably, prevent an officiating gaffe like the one in Rams-saints from deciding a game, league leaders must cross their fingers that any unintended consequences of the replay change don’t result in more harm than good.
“I’m a glass-half-full guy,” former NFL referee John Parry said. “I hope it works. Time will tell. There are going to be plays where we all agree (whether interference should be called), but there are going to be some where we don’t all agree.”
The new replay system was in effect for last week’s Hall of Fame Game, in which a first-half challenge by Denver resulted in a 43-yard interference call against them being upheld, and it is being put to the test in exhibition games this weekend.
Owners ratified the switch for only one season, meaning the system will be reevaluated next offseason.
Under the new rule, teams can question interference calls and non-calls under the existing coaches’ challenge system in the first 28 minutes of each half. In the final two minutes of each half, an interference-related review would have to be initiated by the replay assistant in the press box.
“The NFL officiating department and our coaches have spent a lot of time working on this,” said Atlanta Falcons president Rich Mckay, chairman of the NFL’S competition committee. “I feel very confident that we’re getting on the same page and we’re going to be able to successfully implement this change.”
The competition committee previously resisted making judgment calls by officials, such as interference, subject to review. But the furor over the Rams-saints fiasco changed everything.
The potential problem with the new system is that while no one would dispute that the Rams’ Nickell Robey-coleman committed interference when he plowed into the Saints’ Tommylee Lewis, it won’t always be so clear-cut whether a defender’s hand placed on a receiver’s shoulder, or a relatively subtle tug or push, should result in a penalty.
“Everyone will agree we needed a system to correct that egregious, jump-outat-you play … (but) we’ve added a subjective portion,” said Parry, who retired from the NFL in April and is now a rules analyst for ESPN. “I think we fell short. I’d like to see player safety be part of the discussion. That same play was an illegal hit to the receiver’s head.”
Some within the sport worry that fans, TV viewers and broadcasters won’t be ready for the first time a touchdown comes under replay review (as all scoring plays do) and is negated by an illegal pick — constituting offensive interference — that sprung open a receiver but went uncalled on the field.
“It’s going to take away from the game,” said Ty Law, the Hall of Fame cornerback of the New England Patriots. “Referees are out there for a reason. They don’t make every call right. But something like that, pass interference, once you start opening that can of worms, it’s going to get ugly, and the game is going to get a lot longer.”
But the burden of whether to initiate interferencerelated reviews mostly falls on coaches, who remain limited to two replay challenges per game (plus a third if the first two are correct).
This marks the NFL’S first foray into allowing replay to impose a penalty for an infraction that went uncalled.
If it goes well, it could be a step toward further expansion of replay, perhaps ultimately toward a system in which all calls or non-calls could be challenged — something that Patriots coach Bill Belichick has proposed in the past. But first, this attempt has to work out.