You've all seen referees make bad or missed calls. What are your thoughts? Brian Urlacher comments on NFC Championship Game referee gaffe ByMatt Eurich 15 hours ago The biggest story of Championship Weekend in the NFL was more about the referees instead of the Los Angeles Rams and the New England Patriots advancing to Super Bowl LIII. While participating at an event ahead of this year's Pro Bowl, legendary Chicago Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher weighed in on the situation that occurred in the NFC Championship game between the Rams and New Orleans Saints. Late in that contest, there was a missed pass interference call on a play when Rams cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman slammed into Saints wide receiver Tommylee Lewis before the football had gotten to the young wideout. No flag was thrown on the field, prompting a lot of criticism from those around the league. The NFL later admitted the call was missed on the field. “If they had called the penalty, it wouldn’t be a big deal," Urlacher said about the play, via Herbie Teope of NFL.com. "It was horrible, I don’t get it ... The NFL reviews everything, all the ‘important’ plays, they review. I guess that play wasn’t important to them.” Urlacher then continued. “I just don’t get it because it cost the Saints the game," Urlacher said, via Teope. "It was obviously a penalty ... I think it should’ve been called. I just don’t see how the NFL keeps missing these calls. It has a huge outcome on games.” The outrage over the missed call has reached a fever pitch in New Orleans. Some season ticket holders have gone as far as trying to sue the NFL over the missed pass interference call. The play in question happened with 1:49 left in the fourth quarter with the game tied at 20 points. On the third down with 10 yards to go for the first down, Lewis ran a route out to quarterback Drew Brees' right. Robey-Coleman ran into Lewis far before the ball got there but no flag was called. Saints head coach Sean Payton was livid on the sidelines after the no-call. Even the broadcast crew of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman could not believe no call was made on the field. 1COMMENTS Had a penalty been called there, the Saints could have milked the clock down before having kicker Will Lutz attempt a field goal. Lutz went on to make a 31-yard field goal but left 1:41 on the clock for the Rams to work with. Los Angeles quarterback Jared Goff then moved the Rams down the field before Greg Zuerlein hit a 48-yard field goal with 15 seconds remaining on the clock. The Saints got the ball to start overtime but Brees threw an interception that was hauled in by John Johnson. Moments later, Zuerlein made a 57-yard field goal to send the Rams to Super Bowl LIII. Urlacher has rarely been one to have a strong stance one way or another on most situations, so that makes it quite telling for him to voice these strong of opinions about the referee situation in the NFL.
The teams in the playoffs were decided by the refs too. I believe that the NFL wanted a team from LA in the SB so the local ratings will be higher next season. They probably could pocket another billion dollars just from rating increases in LA. The NFL is about profit, not fair play.
Refs made some horrible calls all season but rarely does a game come down to one single play as the decider. Its easy to turn games into that one call won the game for so and so or team x lost that call because of the refs but it honestly doesn't work that way. Lets take a look at the big one that has everyone in an uproar the non called PI on the Rams vs the Saints. 1st the Saints had a 13 point lead they squandered away. 2nd it was only a 13 point lead because twice inside the red zone the Saints were forced to settle for Field Goals instead of touchdowns 3rd look at the sequence of plays right before the non PI call the Saints went Pass, Run, Pass when they should have been Going Run, Run, Run (obviously they dint watch the Falcons Patriots Super Bowl). Had the Saints done this they would have run some time off the clock and they would have forced the Rams to burn their final two timeouts. Instead the Saints helped the Rams by stopping the clock twice leaving more time on the clock for the rams field goal tying drive. 4th The saints get the ball first in OT and they turn the ball over. You want to win the game don't turn the Ball over. That being said I do hope they do something to allow correction of missed/botched calls but fans, players, owners, and coaches need to quit crying about how they lost the call because of the officials. The only team that can make that cry is the 1972 US men's basketball team.
Bull Shit! The league is using the refs to fix games and the only way to stop it is to review ridiculous calls/non calls.
I disagree all those mentioned above should be outraged and if everybody sat on their thumbs and smiled about it nothing would ever be done. What did it take for the NFL who had known the danger long before they took action about the concussion issue? It wasn't just about the lawsuits either, it was also former players stepping up some sadly after their deaths to raise that awareness. What about the bullshit PF roughing the passer called against the Chiefs that led to the Patriots go ahead TD in the 4th? There was no contact with the helmet he swung his arm to try and obstruct the throw. You're right though something needs to be done, but bending over submitting to it isn't the way I would go. To each his own I guess.
You can be outraged over the bad calls but stop with the it cost us the game part of the outrage of course that is just my humble opinion.
I am sick of hearing the ref in the booth play after play after play , he get's as much air time as the 2 announcers ... that being said the Saints non call was horrendous for sure , yet didn't they get the ball to start overtime ??? and most that want the overtime changed say it's impossible to stop a Brees , Brady , Ben , Rivers etc if they get the ball ??? but the Saints didn't get the job done like the Pats did and score 6 pts to win the game. Why the pass on 1st down which went incomplete to stop the clock and save the Rams a TO ??? I'm not a Saints fan and if I was would I feel different ? of course that's a given because of the emotion involved . That ref should be at a min suspended for a period of time , everyone makes mistakes in their work and every days lives , this one just happens to been seen by millions of people. I hate the BS pass interference calls made game after game , if it's 3rd and 20 just chuck it up , hopefully a little short and have the receiver act like he has a chance to catch it and there you go .. first and 10 spot foul . I don't want that to be a reviewed call , it's not cut and dry like a fumble , catch or scoring play it's a judgement call and once that starts to get reviewed to me the gloves are off and let's review every single call .
Good point Mack those games would go on forever, but how about at least having the ability to challenge it with a challenge flag as those are limited and not endless. I also agree with the prayer ball thoughts, but it has to be determined that the receiver would have to have a catchable ball which is easier to judge under replay review than in real time.
I think they could do 1 more challenge per team as a compromise only on PI calls nothing else ... and then when a pathetic holding call changes a game or roughing the passer call changes the outcome late they will add that I presume.
Here's a thought I heard they can challenge a PI one time a game and if their wrong it's a 15 yard penalty . It's used in Hockey if they challenge a offsides and their wrong 2 minute penalty .
It's not true presently but if they were to consider allowing the coaches to challenge a PI make it a penalty on the coach that made that challenge if they are wrong.
