The NFL has a major problem this season and it has to do with the referees. No, it’s not the referees in general, it’s how they have called pass interference and how the point of challenging these calls have been virtually worthless.
After an egregious non-call in last season’s NFC championship game between the Saints and the Rams, the league came together and decided that it would it would be preferable if teams would be allowed to challenge pass interference calls and non-pass interference calls.
This new rule of being able to challenge these rulings was supposed to help revolutionize the game for the better, instead they have made things even worse for the league.
Reviews were put in place to help take some of the human error out of the game and help call the game better with the help of advanced technology. For the most part this is what the reviews have done, but they have done these for clear and evident calls, not judgement calls.
When the ruling came in the offseason that the notion passed, and teams would be able to review these sorts of plays, it seemed like the perfect idea and help bring some popularity back to the game. However, one thing it seems we all forgot was the concept of pass interference in the first place.
Pass interference, unlike any other call that can be reviewed during the course of a game is a judgement call instead of a clear and evident call. This means that there is no one correct call when looking at potential pass interference plays. However obvious a potential call or non-call looks to the public only means so much in the grand scheme of things, at the end of the day the referees are the ones that make the calls, no one else.
Even with the introduction of the reviewable calls it is still evident that these types of calls are still judgement calls and should be treated as so.
The NFL did something it felt it needed to do after last season’s championship game when a non-call potentially cost the Saints a trip to the Super Bowl, implement a new rule to help ensure that this type of call would never cost a team again. The implementation of the rule was not meant to fix everything, but it was supposed to help fix the obvious calls that were incorrectly ruled on the field.
These reviews were not meant to be the saving grace that all teams were looking for, but it was supposed to end some of the controversy. The problem is when we look at how the challenges have been implemented this season, they have showed to be doing more harm than good around the league.
There might be no better way to prove that this new rule is not having its intended effect on the league than looking at this past Sunday’s Texans vs. Ravens game.
In the first quarter with about six minutes remaining in the quarter the Texans had a 4th & 2 at Baltimore’s 33-yard line, on this play Deshaun Watson dropped back and threw a ball to the endzone looking for receiver DeAndre Hopkins. Hopkins was covered by Marlon Humphrey on the play and it was a play that clearly looked like Humphrey interfered with Hopkins chance of catching the pass.
Bill O’Brien—the Texans Head Coach— challenged the non-call and the play went under review to the guys in New York. As the pass interference challenge rule states—Calls will only be reversed based on “clear and obvious visual evidence” that an incorrect call was made, which is the same standard for all reviews. This brings up the challenge of pass interference in the first place, once again–it’s a judgement call.
Judgement calls are the toughest to overturn for everyone because they are based on your judgement of the play, no one else’s. If this play, that seemed fairly obvious that it was an incorrect call on the field, was not overturned than this new rule is not doing what it was intended to do.
Although this is the latest example of this rule causing more harm than good there have been examples all throughout the season. So far this season since Week 3 teams have a success rate of 2 for 41 (4.9%).
With a success rate of only 4.9% since week 3 this season it should be obvious now to almost every teams to stop challenging these types of calls and non-calls, even if it is clear and obvious that it was the incorrect call.
Even though when this rule was thought of it seemed like it could have great implications for what could have been for the league it has been pretty clear that the league does not want to show the faults if their referees. Once again, I will say pass interference calls are judgement calls and we all judge these differently, but for a rule that could have changed the league for the better only having a 4.9% success rate since week 3 it seems like the league wants to get rid of this rule in the upcoming seasons.
This rule was made to appease teams after a debacle at the end of last season and the rule still has a chance to work, but there will need to be a massive overhaul in teaching the referees in New York to help make the correct call. Again, this rule can be successful, but if they are going to keep calling it the way they have thus far they may as well get rid of the rule since it is not benefitting anyone.