When watching a football game, the referees are the final word on whether an action was a penalty or not, and their decision is usually the last one that is made in respect to the enforcement of any rules while on the field. This is why there are four officials, to make sure that they can back each other’s decision. However, the problem is that they are human and humans make mistakes, but when it comes to the NFL, they have to be perfect or fans, players, coaches, and even owners will start breathing down their necks.
Well, the unthinkable happened; mistakes were made during a few of the Week 1 games of the NFL season. During the first game, where the Seattle Seahawks played against underdogs St. Louis Rams, a big mistake happened that could have cost the Rams the game, but luckily for everyone, they still won the game in the end.
The officials corrected one mistake on the Seahawks’ onside kick at the start of overtime against the Rams on Sunday, giving the Rams the ball after first wrongly ruling that the Rams had committed an invalid fair catch signal. However, they made another mistake that was never corrected, as the Seahawks could have been flagged for hitting Rams receiver Bradley Marquez after he signaled for a fair catch. This would have put the ball at the 35-yard line instead of at the 50, but officials did not listen and decided to keep the ball where it was. 15 yards is a huge difference, especially in overtime and are looking for a win.
Another two mistakes that officials made was during the Giants vs. Cowboys game. The first one was when they made a Pass Interference call on Giants cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, which should not have occurred. The second call was when the officials failed to call a Hold on Giants tight end Daniel Fells during a third-down play, which resulted in a stopped clock. The call would have given Eli Manning the chance to simply kneel and run out the clock, but instead it gave the Cowboys the chance to score and win the game.
Mistakes will happen during a game, but when they are game changing mistakes, everyone, even the NFL is embarrassed by them. With the apologies made by the League for these mistakes, we know that they should never have happened, especially during a football game.