Pete Carroll: NFL wishes pass interference had been called on late play in end zone

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Seahawks coach Pete Carroll has tried to carefully balance a desire to get his message out regarding a non-call of defensive pass interference late in Sunday’s critical regular-season finale against the 49ers with the league’s desire that coaches neither criticize officiating nor disclose admissions made privately to teams about officiating errors.

On Monday, Carroll explained that he’d like the league to have more camera angles immediately available for replay review, implying that he believes other angles not immediately available from NBC cameras made it more clear that 49ers linebacker Fred Warner had significantly hindered Seahawks tight end Jacob Hollister‘s effort to catch the football. (The NBC angles seemed to be more than sufficient.) Three days later, Carroll told reporters that he believes that the league would have liked to have seen the officials call DPI.

“Here’s what I would tell you,” Carroll said when asked about his communications with 345 Park Avenue regarding the non-call that swung a division title, that kept the Packers from being the No. 1 seed, and that knocked the Saints out of a bye. “They wish that they would’ve called a pass interference. They can look and see, and they would’ve called pass interference, I think. That would probably be the feeling I got because you easily could’ve called it, and nobody would’ve complained about the call other than the guy that grabbed him. That would’ve made everything a whole lot cleaner and all that. It’s difficult for those guys to put a flag down on the field [via replay review]. It’s got to be so egregious that there’s a standard to it. Had it been called on the field, they never would’ve overturned that from what I understand.”

He’s right about that; it’s much harder to overturn a ruling of pass interference than it is to overturn a ruling that there wasn’t pass interference. However, the standard has shifted and changed throughout the year, from a strict and literal search for clear and obvious evidence of significant hindrance to egregious proof of interference back to the literal standard and as the playoffs approach, who knows what the standard is?

Based on Carroll’s comments, the bar apparently is high again. And it will stay high until it isn’t. Then it will stay there until it is, again. Which is no way to operate a billion-dollar business that now sees millions of dollars legally wagered on the decisions made by officials and by those responsible for taking a second look at those decisions.

And so with 11 postseason games starting Saturday, the league would be wise to select a standard, to stick with it, and to communicate clearly and unequivocally to all teams, all media, and all fans precisely what the standard is.