After just one year, the NFL is eliminating replay reviews of pass-interference calls.
Atlanta Falcons president and CEO Rich McKay, the chairman of the NFL’s competition committee, confirmed the news Thursday.
Last month, the competition committee recommended ending the one-year trial run allowing reassessment of potential rulings regarding offensive pass interference (OPI) and defensive pass interference (DPI).
“Nobody is putting forward the OPI/DPI review again, so that dies a natural death,” McKay said in an interview on Sirius XM NFL Radio. “In my opinion, we were trying to apply something that we’ve always been fearful of. We didn’t know what the total outcome would be, but we were always fearful of putting a totally subjective play into replay.
“The majority of replays is objective, and what I mean by that is that it’s a line. ‘Did the ball cross the plane or not? Did the ball touch the ground or not? Were two feet in or not?’ There’s a lot of objective lines involved and it’s an objective review.
“When we go into subjective, (it) is, ‘Was this enough for a foul? Did he grab him enough? Was the restriction enough?’ We knew there would be problems, because your subjectivity and my subjectivity on a particular reviewable play can easily be different.”
The move to review pass-interference calls was prompted by an non-call that likely cost the New Orleans Saints a berth in the Super Bowl at the end of the 2018-19 season.
Rams cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman clearly hit New Orleans receiver Tommylee Lewis too soon on a play that would have given the Saints a first down with an chance to run out the clock and kick a game-winning field goal. However, no call was made, and Los Angeles ultimately won 26-23 in overtime.
–Field Level Media
