The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
New pass interference review rule brings with it added uncertainty
CHICAGO — No one really knows how this is going to go. It’s this way every year. The NFL embarks on some highprofile rule adjustment, and players and coaches wade into the water with some sense of hope but plenty of trepidation.
This year it’s about pass interference, a rule that’s the same in 2019 as it has been for ages. But there’s a twist. This year, for the first time, pass interference penalties will be reviewable. Same goes for plays on which interference was not called but might have occurred.
Was there illegal contact before the ball arrived? Was it clear and obvious? Is now the time to roll the dice on a protest?
Coaches will have one hand on that red challenge flag. And in the league office in New York, senior vice president of officiating Al Riveron and vice president of replay Russell Yurk will remain ready to play judge and jury with the benefit of framebyframe millisecond analysis. Away we go.
Said Bears cornerback Prince Amukamara: “Who knows how this is going to go? There’s always going to be some uncertainty.”
As part of the annual mission to educate players and coaches on new rules, wrinkles and points of emphasis, the league’s officiating crews are popping in at training camps across the country. This week in Bourbonnais, referee Adrian Hill and his crew visited with the Bears to explain what’s ahead on a number of rulesrelated topics.
After hearing from Hill and his team on the passinterference topic, Amukamara came to this conclusion: “What I took away from the meeting — and I’m not mad about it, I get it — was that this is an offensive league. It is. I can’t even waste my energy talking to the refs. It’s never going to go the defense’s way. That’s just how it is. We just need to play smarter.”
THE GENESIS
All of this, of course, is a significant reaction to what happened in the final two minutes of the NFC championship game in January. With 1 minute, 49 seconds to play and the Saints driving for a potential winning score, Drew Brees fired a thirdand10 pass toward the right sideline to Tommylee Lewis. Rams defensive back Nickell RobeyColeman clobbered Lewis well before the football arrived. The Saints receiver never had a chance to catch the pass. But no flag was thrown.
No pass interference. No automatic first down.
Instead of having first down at the Rams 5 with a chance to run the clock down before attempting a winning field goal, the Saints had to settle right then for a 31yard kick. That left the Rams time to answer. And they did.
The Saints lost in overtime 2623. The Rams went to the Super Bowl.
In simplest terms, the missed PI call against RobeyColeman was historychanging. “The NOLA No Call.” The deep scar the Saints and their fans must carry with them.
As a result, the league has installed a safety net to help assure such costly errors can be erased. Or at least reduced. Hill, for one, is appreciative of that backstop.
“If there is a clear and obvious error on the field, we now have the opportunity to correct it,” the veteran referee said. “No official wants to be in a position where an error that could have been corrected has some type of gamechanging impact.”
SAME AS IT EVER WAS
League owners voted in March to approve the use of replay to review passinterference situations. The next step is implementation. In essence, passinterference reviews will be like every other reviewable play, subject to a coach’s challenge for the first 28 minutes of each half, then initiated by the replay booth in the final two minutes.
And as Hill made clear in his meeting with the Bears and again in a session with reporters at Olivet Nazarene University, he and his crew will be doing nothing differently on the field this season.
The rule is the same as it has been. That’s why the league’s 2019 video detailing rules changes and new points of emphasis didn’t include a single clip of any play involving pass interference. The way those flags are thrown or not thrown isn’t changing.
“I’m honestly not too worried,” Bears cornerback Kyle Fuller said. “It all depends on the play. I’m moreso looking forward to see just how this goes around the league with the replays. But what they’ve told us is that really nothing will really change on the field.”
The great unknown is how involved Riveron and Yurk will want to get when reviewing challenged PI plays.
Hill offered a reminder that, as with every play subject to replay review, there will be a collaborative discussion on what exactly happened between the onfield referee, the replay official in the booth in the stadium and either Riveron or Yurk in New York.
But those discussions, while usually open and productive, don’t always end with a majorityrules vote. So how will the bigwigs in New York apply the provision that requires a clear and obvious video evidence to overturn the call on the field?
Said Hill: “At the end of the day, if my boss tells me that it’s clear and obvious, then it’s clear and obvious.”
‘CLEAR AND OBVIOUS’
Before meeting with the officials from Hill’s crew Monday, Bears receiver Taylor Gabriel was preparing his checklist of questions and concerns. He was most curious to know just how closely officials would be dialing in on offensive passinterference possibilities.
Said Gabriel: “I’m just talking about situations where you’re not extending your hand to push off but where you may give the DB a little chicken wing to get room. That’s football. Now is that going to be offensive pass interference? Are they going to review every little thing like that?
“Or what about those times when the defender is flailing a little bit and he falls because he’s unathletic? It’s not my fault that he fell. So are they going to start looking extra close at that too?”
Gabriel also wonders how the constant hand fighting between receivers and defensive backs might be cracked down on with slowmotion reviews.
“That’s what we do all the time,” he said. “Now when you take that under the hood to diagnose that, it’s going to be tough to distinguish what’s hand fighting and what’s pushing off. My hope, I’d say, is that (to be called) it would have to be blatant.”
Hill offered feedback. “There’s obviously always a lot of hand fighting,” he said. “What we’re looking for is a material restriction. We allow them to hand fight. That’s fine. But if it’s grabbing the arm, grabbing the jersey, it’s a restriction. And that’s the level where it turns into a foul.”
Again, Hill emphasized, the officials on the field and in the replay booth will be looking for infractions that are “clear and obvious.” Same as always.
‘I MUST HAVE MISSED IT’
Amukamara is still certain offensive players get the benefit of the doubt far more often than defenders. This week in practice, for example, Allen Robinson went over Fuller to bat down a pass on a slant route, and the officials said it was a clean play by the Bears receiver. But a few days later, when Fuller did made a similar play against tight end Ben Braunecker, the yellow flag came out.
“That’s frustrating,” Amukamara said. “It really is. However, I think that makes our position so much more valuable. To play a clean game, to not touch the receiver after 5 yards, to go toetotoe, to break when he breaks down. That takes a special person to live life as a DB.”
Amukamara can only hope the officials are special at what they do. On Monday, when he drew what he thought was a bogus PI call defending Anthony Miller, Amukamara protested and made it clear he never had touched Miller.
“And the official said, ‘I must have missed it then, brother,’” Amukamara said. “That’s the thing. Again, I’m not mad about it. It’s just how it is. But yeah, OK, you must have missed the call. But that call might have cost me my job.”
In a moment of pure candor, Amukamara admitted his level of sympathy for the Saints in January was minimal.
“Honestly,” he said, “as a DB, I was like, ‘Yes! Finally! They let one go!’ Now that one obviously was so blatant, it’s not what you want. But I promise you, as a defensive player, there are far more calls missed the other way.”
As a ninthyear veteran, Amukamara understood he needed to slow his griping and put the proper punctuation on his thoughts. So he folded his hands in front of himself, raised his eyebrows and went full politician.
“I know the NFL is doing their best with this,“he said. ”And I know they will do their best to get it fixed.”
Amukamara smiled widely. We all shall see.