It takes no originality to say that the National Football League’s officiating mistakes continue to be a major embarrassment and that its inability to consistently enforce pass interference is bordering on scandalous.
In what is either more unlucky voodoo or an example of whiners being hoisted by their own petard (depending on your sympathies as a fan), the New Orleans Saints this year have been suffering from the very rule-change they instigated. After the fiasco in last year’s NFC championship game, where a missed interference call kept the Saints from the Super Bowl, it was the Saints’ persistent lobbying that led the NFL to make interference reviewable via instant replay.
The Saints, who play at Atlanta Thanksgiving night, have seen harm, but no benefit, from the replays. Last week, the bizarrely shifting standards for interference nearly cost the Saints the game against the Carolina Panthers. Four plays — count ’em, four — involved disputable interference calls. All four went against the Saints.
After the game, I reviewed all four, multiple times, in slow motion. Twice, the Saints were called for offensive pass interference, usually an infraction called less often than defensive interference. In both instances, the defender clearly initiated contact, both times using hands to the Saint’s body or shoulder to contain the receiver as he made a cut move in a pass route. Both times, the Saint receiver swiped away the defender’s hands, in reaction to the initial contact. Both times, the swipe resulted in a sort of status quo ante situation, with the receiver again having a slightly more advantageous path to the ball.
For nonmajor responses to nonmajor initial contact by the defender, the Saints twice were penalized, both on key plays. Both plays were reviewed by the replay booth. Neither call was overturned.
Another time, on a deep pass by Saints quarterback Drew Brees to receiver Ted Ginn, Ginn had a full step on the defender. Not once but twice, with the ball airborne, the defender grabbed Ginn’s shoulder pad, the second time just as the ball arrived. Neither grab was a full yank on the pad, but both slightly altered Ginn’s movement, and the second came just as Ginn was trying to make the catch. Ginn failed to hold on. No penalty was called.
Contrarily, with just over two minutes left in the game, with the Panthers trying to score a go-ahead touchdown on third down from the Saints’ four-yard line, a Saints defender, fighting off an arguably illegal pick, clearly reached across the body of a Panther on a crossing route at the exact moment the quarterback released the ball. The contact was real, but momentary. It probably cost the Panther one full step. The pass landed about eight yards out of the Panther’s reach. No penalty initially was called.
The league reviewed the play. Was the ball airborne? Barely. Was there contact? Yes. But was the ball catchable (another necessary element for an interference penalty). Not a chance. Nevertheless, this time, in one of the rare instances in the whole league this year, the replay booth overruled the no-call. It penalized the Saints, giving the Panthers a first down at the Saints’ two-yard line.
Somehow, the Saints still won. But their complaints were legitimate: There was absolutely no consistency, even within this one game, in deciding what sort of contact merited penalties.
The point is not to whine about how the NFL hates the Saints (although it does!). The point is, it shouldn’t be so darn hard to institute a consistent rule. How about this: If there clearly is contact while the ball was in the air, and it is clear who initiated the contact, and if the contact clearly made a difference in the pass’ catchability, then it’s a penalty under replay rules. Otherwise, it’s not. Name it the “three-clear rule.” If not all elements are clear, then the play remains as initially called.
There: How simple is that? And why can’t the NFL get it right?
