SU gets it. If you are a Saints’ fan (or if you bet a lot of money on the game), you are outraged by the non-call on the receiver late in regulation. It was so obvious. However, SU says that if you watched that entire game, the refs were clearly trying to not call a lot of penalties.. They were letting them play. The reality is if that pass interference or blow to the head penalty is called, the Saints run down the clock and kick the winning field goal. Agreed. SU says consider the following:
- The Saints were the beneficiary of a number of controversial officiating calls this year. Naturally, no one brings that up including Sean Payton.
- The Saints defense could have still stopped the Rams on that last drive. They didn’t get the job done.
- Games that are decided late also have many plays during the game that were equally critical but are forgotten in the end.
What can the NFL really do? SU says it’s a slippery slope to review possible penalties as that can work both ways. Are you allowed to review a penalty that IS called? And when it comes to pass interference, you can call that on every single pass. Literally. Here is what SU suggests – for all sports:
- If it’s pass interference, call it. Every time. When the defender is locking the receiver’s arm down, call it. The grab? Just call it. It will stop if you call it every time. There will be an adjustment period but ultimately it will stop.
- In sports, officiating is the human factor. SU is sure that every umpire or ref who blows a call feels terrible about it. They are trying to do their best (except maybe for Joe West in baseball who is too lazy to be in position and has his personal vendettas).
- Let’s face the reality: in some sports, you no longer need the officials. Tennis is there. True, it’s expensive to have the technology on every court but where you do have the technology, why have the lines persons? You make the players challenge but that shouldn’t be necessary as the technology is down to the millimeter. You still need the umpire as players will get out of hand, but why not? Hey, in college, the players even call their own lines and wait … pick up their own balls! And while we’re at it, keep your own towel in the corner and go get it if you need to dry off. Why do tennis players need to towel off after every point? You should get one towel off per game. Speed it up!
- Penalize the players who claim a bogus penalty or foul. In football, stop with the hand motions for the call – both by the receiver and the defender. That is an unsportsmanlike penalty – 15 yards. Boom. You do that in high school basketball, it’s a technical. Same thing in basketball. And you know what? If you flop, that’s a technical foul. No doubt this would put the entire Wisconsin basketball team on the bench, but so be it. Play defense and stop falling down or jerking your head back.
Technology helps to clarify the close play – see baseball where in fairness, the umpires have no chance to get those close plays correct, and SU says that their hit rate is less than 50%. I get it – they are bang bang plays. The technology works. And you can also use technology to call balls and strikes. Totally fine with that – just make the adjustment for the tall guys like Aaron Judge and Stanton.
Bottom line: it’s never going to be 100% perfect but let’s use technology in a smart way and penalize players for faking.
Thoughts?
Sports Update Intergalactic 
The only other outrageous non call I have seen in the past year, where the Refs had enough time to make the correct call was when Durant was out of bounds under the hoop for at least 2-3 seconds while tryi9ng to save the ball from going out of bounds.
I do agree on the bang bang plays it is much harder to get it right but both these calls were so so so obvious.
Each team has 3 red flags at their disposal. They need to choose using them widely. If you can throw the red flag for ball placement to determine whether its a first down or not.,..another bang bang play why not have the chance to use them on penalty calls as well. 3 chance… so use them wisely.
Of course you can make an argument probably on every play during the game. Someone is holding someone amongst the 22 players out there….maybe only 21 since the QB is not holding anyone unless he is blocking.
When you go the entire year to get to this point and the game is truly determined by a horrific not penalty it is unfair for everyone. The integrity and fairness of the game comes into question. Unfortunately in time very few people will remember this play…..only who won the Super bowl. During the playoffs there hasn’t been such an outrageous situation since the Heidi Bowl. You do remember the Heidi Bowl between the Jets and the Raiders….
I understan
I understand all the cliches about the human element, goes both ways, etc., but this goes way beyond any of that. I had no real rooting interest and it completely ruined the game for me, and in many ways has tainted the Super Bowl. I also don’t understand some of the things I’ve read that said that the Saints could have kicked the go-ahead FG with about 20 seconds left – if they had run the plays properly, they could have run it down to less than 10. Case closed, 25 yard field goal, game over. As for the rules changes, they have to make pass interference as one of the challenges allowed, whether it’s on this type of play, or if it’s called and it shouldn’t have been. And I would also add, although it went both ways and probably didn’t affect the outcome, the officiating in the second game – other than that last call – was WORSE! Either way, forget about Don Denkinger, or Richie Garcia with Jeffrey Maier, this had to be the worst call in the history of sports and absolutely scars the NFL for a long time. Just shameful.