Pass interference won’t be up for review next season. There’s a reason for that, a prominent league executive said.
In interview with NBC Sports’ Peter King, Troy Vincent, the league’s vice president of football operations, said the NFL “failed miserably” in their implementation of reviewing pass interference plays last season.
“Those outcomes were not good for professional football,” Vincent said. “Because we didn’t do the proper due diligence, it played out publicly. The last thing people should be talking about is the way the game is officiated. They [officials] should be faceless objects, managing and facilitating game flow. We failed. I’m first in line. I shared that [with league officials]. I failed, as the leader of that department. I failed. We cannot allow that to happen again.
“What did we learn from that? We’ve got to do our due diligence. You can’t rush and just shove something in there without knowing all the consequences.”
Last year, the NFL voted on a one-year trial basis to allow coaches to be able challenge on pass interference calls, as well as give referees the option to review those plays under two minutes. The change was made primarily because of the NFC Championship Game between the Los Angeles Rams and New Orleans Saints, where referees missed a blatant penalty late on the Rams.
But the implementation of the rule backfired. Fans still criticized officials as the referees appeared to still get calls — obvious calls — wrong. Coaches and players also critiqued the setup.
This year, the league decided not to propose the rule to its competition committee.
“We didn’t do [our due diligence] last year, and we failed, and we failed miserably,” Vincent said.
• Matthew Paras can be reached at mparas@washingtontimes.com.
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