Swoop
Well-known member
- Mar 19, 2019
- 2,033
- 0
Getty Images
Remember when Dunder Mifflin was going to close the Scranton branch and move some of the employees to Stamford and then Josh quit to go to Staples and management closed Stamford instead because the entire change was premised on Josh staying? That’s what the NFL should have done when Dean Blandino left for FOX.
More specifically, the NFL should have aborted its plan to have its senior V.P. of officiating exercise final say for each and every replay review when the person for whom the system was created decided to no longer work for the NFL. The job is too difficult, too powerful, and too critically important to be simply handed off to the next man up. Whether it’s Al Riveron or someone else, it’s simply not working without Blandino.
The evidence first emerged in 2017, when Riveron repeatedly struggled to apply replay review in catch/no-catch situations, forcing a change to the rules that, as a practical matter, made the question of what is and isn’t a catch far less subjective — and thus far more difficult to screw up via replay review. It now continues, with replay review for pass interference calls and non-calls becoming the blemish on the NFL’s 100th season (especially now that Antonio Brown isn’t on a team).
The bar was set at one level in the preseason, to the chagrin of coaches who thought that non-calls of pass interference would become pass interference penalties only when the evidence was clear, obvious, and egregious. Riveron, based on explanations provided for 2018 plays like Chargers receiver Mike Williams supposedly committing offensive pass interference in Week 15 and Patriots cornerback Stephon Gilmore supposedly committing defensive pass interference in Super Bowl LIII, seemed intent on conducting a slow-motion, frame-by-frame analysis that would supersede the real-time, full-speed, subjective judgment of the officials.
Then came a stunning non-call in Week One, with 49ers cornerback Richard Sherman clearly, obviously, and egregiously pulling down the arms of Buccaneers receiver Mike Evans as he tried to catch a pass. Blandino, who nows works for FOX, said that Sherman had interfered with Evans (because Sherman had). The non-call, to the surprise of 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan (go back and watch his reaction via the NFL’s Game Pass feature) nevertheless stood.
PFT explained in the aftermath of that curious failure to use the new twist on replay review to call clear and obvious pass interference that wasn’t called on the field that, before the regular season, someone told Riveron to raise the bar on what would be considered pass interference after the fact. For Week One, as evidenced by the non-call in 49er-Bucs, the bar went too high.
In Week Two, based on a non-call that became DPI via replay review in Seahawks-Steelers, the bar seemed to move lower, undermining the notion that Riveron had been given a mandate to apply a higher standard. Or, perhaps more accurately, proving that the job specifically crafted for Blandino should be filled only by Blandino.
Thursday night’s game featured two instances of defensive pass interference that weren’t called on the field and that should have been called via replay review. The first, Eagles cornerback Avonte Maddox clearly, obviously, and egregiously put his hand into the face of and otherwise physically assaulted Packers receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling before the ball arrived. This is exactly the kind of “what the hell!?!” maneuver that replay review of pass interference non-calls was meant to rectify. It was Rams-Saints Lite; the defensive back disrupting the receiver’s opportunity to call the ball before the ball comes into the frame.
So the Packers challenged, Riveron reviewed it, and the ruling on the field inexplicably stood.
The social-media explanation from Riveron shed no light on the reasoning, obviously restating the bottom-line interpretation without addressing why Riveron concluded that there was no clear and obvious evidence of significant hindrance of the opponent. But, clearly and obviously, there was.
It happened later in the third quarter, when Packers cornerback Kenny King hit Eagles receiver Alshon Jeffery early. Eagles coach Doug Pederson challenged the non-call of defensive pass interference, but Pederson should have realized that, if Riveron wasn’t going to put a flag on the ground in response to the earlier play, Riveron wasn’t going to do it now.
Really, if the Maddox hit on Valdes-Scantling doesn’t result in a determination of pass interference via replay review, what will? But it should, and the failure doesn’t come from the process but from the person charged with implementing it.
The process was designed for Blandino. When Blandino left, the NFL should have gotten rid of the process. Or, even better, the NFL should have kept Blandino from leaving by properly valuing the job.
The league still has a chance to get it right, right now. While changes like this often are made during the season, the best way to ensure the best possible outcome for the NFL’s 100th season would be to call Blandino today, find out what it would take to get him to return, clear it all with FOX (are they going to say no?), and make it happen.