Official Uses Jumbotron to Call a Key Play

Image: Newscom.

I don’t know if you’re a fan of instant reply or not…. personally I think anything that can help make the game more fair and unbiased is a good thing. But what if an official actually uses the technology involved in reply (such as the various camera angles shown on the Jumbotron) to call a play? Is that going too far?

That’s the question behind Rams receiver Torry Holt’s claim that an official actually looked up at the Jumbotron first, then called an offensive pass interference play against him. It was a huge play, and it turned the momentum of the game over to the Ram’s opponent: the Seattle Seahawks. Seattle also ended up winning the game 23-20.

Not only that, but offensive pass interference is hardly ever called. And we all see it in the games each week, don’t we? The officials can’t call everything because the game would take seven hours to play. There is probably a penalty committed on every single play to some extent. Still, if a penalty changes the outcome of a game, that needs to be addressed.

Holt is no rookie. He’s a ten-year NFL veteran so it’s not like he doesn’t know what pass interference is yet. Also, the Ram’s have a losing season, and calls that could potentially cost them a win hurt even more. Holt told the ref he was wrong and that he didn’t extend his arm (which is one of the things that constitutes pass interference.) He also said it changed the “energy” of the game for his team.

I’m a firm believer that if you are going to have officials in a game, you have to trust them. They may make a few mistakes, but I really do believe that most of them are great at their jobs. Even when calls are questionable (or just plain wrong) we all have to suck it up. That’s why the league penalizes coaches that mouth off about officiating.

But even the league recognizes that sometimes play calling is not up to par. Remember when the Seahawks lost in the Superbowl a few years ago and Coach Holgrem said he felt his team was playing against the officials as well as the other team? Holgrem was never fined for that, and I think it was an acknowledgment from the league that perhaps the officials didn’t do the best job.

Rams coach Jim Haslett, for his part, said he “was not going to touch” the decision. But then contradicted himself by saying, “That is a young guy over there, a rookie referee,” Haslett said. “I am not sure what he saw but obviously he thought it was pass interference, and we have to live with it. If that is what he called then that is what he called.”

That’s like the “non-apology” isn’t it? Like saying, “I’m sorry you feel hurt” rather than “I’m sorry I hurt you.”

By saying the official is a rookie, isn’t that implying that he agrees with the decision?

All in all, I think teams need to deal with everything involved in a win or loss. That includes the conditions of the stadium (loudness, fans, whatever) and the officiating. It is what it is. It’s football. It isn’t perfect. Besides that, you never hear a team that wins complain of poor officiating, do you?