Mike Florio ,
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The Week 6 game between the Lions and Chiefs featured a Jared Goff trick-play touchdown catch that was overturned by an illegal motion penalty. The call was correct, but a dispute lingers as to whether the on-field officials received outside assistance, in violation of the rules.
Referee Craig Wrolstad said after the game that there was no assistance. Lions coach Dan Campbell has since said he was told that the officials got help from the league office .
When NFL executive V.P. of football operations Troy Vincent appeared on Thursday’s PFT Live , the last question focused on that topic. Was the penalty call the result of input from the replay assistant or the league?
“ It was not ,” Vincent said. “And I’m not sure who Coach Campbell was referring to. But we did not. We did not assist in that. We didn’t have to. I was part of that — I’m part of gameday central on every game.”
Vincent compared the delayed call (75 seconds elapsed between the snap and the flag being dropped) to a situation in which intentional grounding is called following a discussion by the officials.
On one hand, the issue is over. On the other hand, a question remains — unless and until Campbell retracts his remark. And it points to a potential Pandora’s box that could have some calls fixed and some calls not fixed when, per the rulebook, the officials should be left to their own observations and judgment as to how the situation should be resolved.
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