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Stop reading if you’ve heard this before, but the NFL’s over-complicated officiating process made the New Orleans Saints draw the short straw. The Saints needed the Seattle Seahawks to defeat the San Francisco 49ers so that New Orleans could clinch a first-round bye in the playoffs, and they nearly got it when Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson targeted tight end Jacob Hollister in the end zone. But Hollister’s arm was trapped by 49ers linebacker Fred Warner, and the pass fell incomplete. No penalty flags for defensive pass interference followed it.
And the officiating crew on-hand didn’t stop the game to review what happened. Neither did NFL officiating czar Al Riveron call in from his New York office, as he is supposed to do following offseason rules changes. The league instituted these changes after Riveron botched last year’s NFC championship game non-call between the Saints and Los Angeles Rams, and he didn’t learn anything from an experience that should have cost him his job.
If a flag had been thrown, the Seahawks would have had time to run another play or two from near the goal-line, potentially giving them the lead as time expired. Instead, they ended up turning it over on downs, and the 49ers won, clinching the first seed. The Saints were forced to begin preparing for the wild-card Minnesota Vikings, and the Seahawks had to focus on a road trip against the Philadelphia Eagles.
After the game ended, Riveron claimed that he did briefly review the play, but didn’t see enough from the NBC broadcast angles to justify stopping the game for further review with instant-replay.
“Well, we actually looked at it here in New York. We had a great look. NBC gives us a great look of the entire route,” Riveron told Tim Booth of the Associated Press. “So, we actually did perform a review, but based on what we saw, we didn’t see enough to stop the game. But we did review it.”
In other words, Riveron didn’t commit his due diligence. He saw the broadcast angle and didn’t think it was worth his time to review one of the biggest plays in the final game of the decade, with serious playoff implications for multiple games. If things played out as he described it, that’s serious neglect of his job responsibilities.
And if anything, Riveron suggested the play may have qualified for a foul on the offense, because the tight end made first contact. He continued: “What we see is, we see the offensive player come in and initiate contact on the defensive player — nothing that rises to the level of a foul which significantly hinders the defender, nothing that is clear and obvious through visual evidence, which hinders the defender. The defender then braces himself.”
That’s a lot of conviction for Riveron to have in a play he spent a few seconds, maybe a full minute at most, considering. But he doubled down on it in Booth’s pool report, saying, “And there is contact then by the defender on the receiver. Again, nothing which rises to the level of a foul based on visual evidence. Nothing happens that rises to the level of a foul while the ball is in the air before it gets there by either player.”
Let’s be clear: the NFL has not gotten these calls and reviews right throughout the season. The problem isn’t that they got this one completely wrong, either (it’s part of it, but not the entire issue). What should concern fans of every team is that Riveron was in position to follow the rule book and do his job, and consciously chose not to, making a snap decision with less information than he could have. He might have changed his mind had he and his crew in New York reviewed the play from different angles, but Riveron decided it wasn’t worth his time.
After a season full of discourse surrounding pass interference review challenges and the influence referees have on games, Riveron took a hard left on the eve of the playoffs to make it all meaningless. What’s the point of having the ability to initiate booth review of a possible pass-interference foul in the game’s closing minutes if the man in charge thinks doing that is beneath him? Who’s to say it won’t happen again in the playoffs, costing a team their Super Bowl hopes? It’s just further proof that Riveron doesn’t deserve this post, and the NFL should take action as soon as possible to course-correct after Riveron messed things up so dangerously.
Booth ref: “He’s clearly got him grabbed…significantly hindering the receiver. This should be a booth review. I’m surprised they haven’t stopped the game.” 🤦♂️ pic.twitter.com/90HrDFuKb7
— Jim Nagy (@JimNagy_SB) December 30, 2019
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