NFL referees made headlines with the Detroit Lions vs. Dallas Cowboys game in Week 17. The Cowboys ended up prevailing in that game 20-19. However, a big reason that result played out the way it did is because of a controversial ineligible receiver call against Detroit.
Lions coaches, players, fans, and bettors were all outraged about the call last week. NFL legend Carl Banks took it a step further and claimed the league’s integrity is at stake. Now, the NFL has doubled down and released a memo to every team about the rule.
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NFL Uses Detroit Lions as Example in Memo
The NFL released this memo to every team in the league. The video is just under two minutes long. However, the main thing to note is that the NFL decided to use the Detroit Lions’ controversial situation as the example that the video is based around.
Perry Fewell and Walt Anderson narrate this video. For those of you who are not familiar with them, they represent the SVP Officiating Administration and SVP Officiating Training and Development respectively.
These two take the time to remind every team how to report an eligible receiver. They emphasize that it is the player’s responsibility to make sure that the referee understands that they are eligible. These two also repeatedly say that the purpose of this is to give the defense notification that a player on the offensive line is eligible.
Another point discussed here is how a player lines up. They showed a clip of how the Lions lined up before their two-point conversion attempt against the Cowboys. The narrators pointed out that the way lined up would have resulted in an illegal formation regardless. In other words, the NFL is doubling down on the call that was made on the field that night.
NFL Fans React
As you can imagine, fans were not happy with the memo that the NFL sent out. Here is what some of them had to say about it:
“Absolutely incredible this league continues to double down on this like it was the lions fault for their referees incompetency.”
“What a joke. #fireBradAllen”
“Joke of a league.”
“Is this parody?”
“Full of suit much?”
“This is laughable.”
“Why can’t they just own up to their mistake?”
It is safe to say that the wound is still fresh for many NFL fans. Worst of all, this controversial call had a major impact on playoff implications. The Dallas Cowboys could very well could get a higher playoff seed than the Detroit Lions as a result.
