You know all of those horrible calls that have happened in the NFL season so far—like that one from the Bills-Patriots game, the one from the Colts-Bucs game and the one that cost the Lions against the Seahawks? Well, the league wants to make sure the dummies dressed in zebra shirts don’t royally fuck up the postseason, so they’ve implemented a new rule to help protect them from being public enemy No. 1 for a team’s fanbase.
According to Deadspin, via a release from the NFL, here’s what the new rule states:
For the 2015 Postseason, consultation may occur between the Referee and the VP of Officiating or his designee located in the league’s officiating headquarters in New York regarding the correct application of playing rules. In addition to the VP of Officiating’s current role in Instant Replay, this consultation will only include the appropriate assessment of penalty yardage, the proper administration of the game clock, the correct down, or any other administrative matter not currently reviewable.
This will not include the ability to call or change a foul, or otherwise become involved in on-field judgment calls that are not subject to the current Instant Replay system.
To put that in layman’s terms, it means that the league will now give officials a chance to call the VP of Officiating, Dean Blandino, and/or someone who can review the play in the league office to make sure they get it right.
This might seem like an obvious move by a league that, you know, is, arguably, the most powerful in the fucking world, but we all know that it takes Roger Goodell and his little cronies a lot of time to swallow their pride and do the sensible thing.
At least this new rule should help from things like the whole Tuck Rule play from happening—although, I’m not so sure, because that benefitted the Patriots, and that team seems to have the NFL’s number no matter how hard the league tries to bring them down.