Well, that didn’t last very long.
The NFL is already removing the ability for coaches to challenge pass interference penalties, a rule that was instituted last season in wake of the costly mistake made by officials in the 2019 NFC Championship Game between the Saints and Rams. It was a failed experiment that was tested for one season alone, and after seeing so few penalties overturned, the league is axing that rule.
“We’re not going to vote on (it), because nobody is putting forward the OPI/DPI review again. So that dies a natural death,” competition committee chairman Rich McKay said on SiriusXM NFL Radio.
Chairman of the Competition Committee Rich McKay tells us OPI/DPI Replay Review will not be returning….
⬇️AUDIO⬇️ pic.twitter.com/NzbATgNFgv
— SiriusXM NFL Radio (@SiriusXMNFL) May 7, 2020
After the rule was put in place, Nickell Robey-Coleman wasn’t opposed to it being called the “Nickell Robey-Coleman Rule,” since he was the one at the center of the blunder. He clearly interfered with Saints wideout Tommylee Lewis, but no flag was thrown. The Saints would’ve gone on to win the game had the penalty been called, but the Rams got the ball back and wound up winning later in overtime after tying it late in the fourth quarter.
The review rule simply resulted in too many wasted timeouts and not enough overturned calls. Even when it seemed obvious that a foul was committed, the call was not reversed, resulting in a lost time out for the challenging coach.
According to the Washington Post, there were 101 interference calls reviewed, and only 24 of them were reversed. That’s not a large enough number to warrant the rule staying in place, which is why it’s going away in 2020 – relatively quietly, too.
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