When a quarterback hurls the ball up for a “Hail Mary” pass — a desperation throw to a scrum of receivers and defenders in the end zone at the conclusion of the first half or the end of the game — officials generally espouse a “let them play” mentality. It’s not like most other passes where, depending on the crew, the slightest interruption of a receiver’s progress results in a spot foul. The mentality on Hail Marys (Hails Mary?) is that since it’s such a low-percentage throw, and the defense has as much a right to the ball as the offense does, you’re not going to get flagged, no matter how much jostling goes on in the end zone.
In fact, it’s been a rather long streak for the NFL in which no offensive or defensive player has been called for pass interference on such a play, and that streak ended with one second left in the Buccaneers-Vikings game when Tom Brady threw this helium ball from the Minnesota 47-yard line:
Only tom Brady gets a pass interference call on a Hail Mary leading to points lmaoo pic.twitter.com/JhhF9b39DT
— John (@iam_johnw) December 13, 2020
When you look at it, this is a pretty bad call by Brad Allen and his crew — which, unfortunately, is not an isolated incident from Allen’s group. Linebacker Todd Davis and tight end Rob Gronkowski are hand-fighting all the way downfield, Gronkowski bumps into safety Anthony Harris, and then, Gronk does the full-on Premier League flop for good measure. Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer was already heated about a weird PI call on cornerback Jeff Gladney that led to a Buccaneers touchdown, and Coach shouldn’t be any happier about this. Davis was busted for the penalty, and the Bucs kicked an 18-yard field goal with their one untimed down.
So… yeah. Lot of stuff going on from both teams, which is why you generally don’t want to make that call on Hail Marys (Hails Mary?). In fact, per ESPN’s Kevin Seifert, there hasn’t been a pass interference call on either side of the ball in any game since at least the 2009 season. The ESPN Stats & Info note at the end just adds insult to injury.
More from @ESPNStatsInfo:
It was the first DPI call in the last 20 seasons that occurred on a play that:
1. Started in the last 5 seconds of a half
2. Started 30+ yards from the end zone— Kevin Seifert (@SeifertESPN) December 13, 2020
You’d have to go back to 2008, when the Lions beat the Browns on a Matthew Stafford Hail Mary with no time on the clock, and Cleveland safety Hank Poteat as the offender in question, to get a similar result from an officiating perspective. In that game, Stafford became the first rookie to throw five touchdowns in a game since Ray Buivid of the Bears in 1937.
“I’m just so upset that my team fought so hard late in the game to put us in a situation to win and it came down to the penalty that I caused,” Poteat said of the brutal result.
Well, maybe that shouldn’t have been called, either.