Football Zebras.com

Week 13: Lions at Saints

Clete Blakeman’s crew officiated a game that could have easily become uncontrollable at any moment. It didn’t help that they were shorthanded.

Umpire Garth DeFelice left the game midway through the first quarter with a foot injury. That required the crew to readjust their mechanics to officiate most of the game shorthanded. Side judge Greg Meyer moved into the umpire position, leaving only two deep officials.

The game (highlight video) had six personal foul penalties, including the following:

• Lions receiver Titus Young was involved in a post-play push near the goal line (video)
• Lions tight end Brandon Pettigrew contacted line judge Jeff Seeman (video)

Seeman, under the circumstances, could have called for Pettigrew’s ejection. Impermissible contact with an official is not, despite widespread opinion, an automatic ejection, and it took tremendous restraint not to disqualify Pettigrew. In the analysis, Pettigrew was still reacting to the play when Seeman was hit. While it was still a penalty, the officials realized that the contact was not directed at Seeman. It also appears that Pettigrew apologized right away, to help save his place in the game.

While there was a lot of dead-ball action that had to be controlled, the crew made certain that they maintained their composure throughout.

EXCLUSIVE

Zebra Blog has learned that referee Scott Green has been on leave the past two weeks with an injury. Gene Steratore substituted for Green in Week 11 and Jeff Triplette will head Green’s crew today. A league source has indicated that Green has an unspecified injury, with no word on when he will return.

Photo credit: Life magazine from Week 8 game between Jaguars and Texans.

We’re back. If you see a call from Week 1 that deserves our attention, add it to the comments section of this post. Referee assignments are after the jump.

Quick calls

• Steelers at Ravens | 1st quarter | 2:47 remaining | video. One of the first uses of the new all-touchdowns-subject-to-review rule reversed a Ravens touchdown in the first quarter. A Ray Rice run was ruled down by contact at the 1, as James Farrior barely touched Rice as he went to the end zone. It doesn’t matter if the touch caused Rice to go to the ground; the mere fact he was touched at a moment when he was stumbling counts as down by contact.
  3rd Quarter | :44 remaining | video. Referee Tony Corrente, trying to break up a fight between these division rivals, took a hard spill to the turf. Corrente continued in the game. According to his former boss, Mike Pereira, he’s doing fine. There was an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the play, unrelated to Corrente’s fall, against Steelers cornerback Ike Taylor. Photo credit: @SportingBecky.
• Chiefs at Bills | 2nd Quarter | 12:22 remaining | video at :55. A Chiefs touchdown was taken off the board by the new rule as well. A catch by Leonard Pope was ruled incomplete because he did not have control of the ball as he stepped out of bounds. Chiefs were sacked on the next play, then missed the 48-yard field goal. Costly call, but correct.

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Dec. 28, 1975
NFC Divisional Playoff: Cowboys at Vikings

Thirty-five years ago, “Hail Mary” became a football term after Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach so described the desperation pass that connected with Drew Pearson in a playoff game with the Vikings.

In the final drive, the Vikings were convinced that the touchdown should never have counted by crucial calls on two plays in the drive. In protest, a hailstorm of debris was thrown from the Metropolitan Stadium crowd, with a half-full bottle of Corby’s whiskey striking an official in the head.

A video of the original CBS television broadcast called by Gary Bender and Johnny Unitas is below.

Fourth and 16. Staubach connected with Pearson near the sideline, but landed out of bounds at the 50-yard line. Head linesman Jerry Bergman ruled that it was a completion, and that he would have landed in bounds if Vikings cornerback Nate Wright had not pushed Pearson out. The rule, which was changed in 2008, allowed the official to rule a completion in case of a “force out” prior to being able to get two feet down in bounds. Vikings coach Bud Grant disagreed with the call, but said that when Wright contacted Pearson, “the official gave Pearson the benefit of the doubt.”

The Hail Mary. After an incomplete pass, Staubach heaved the ball to Pearson who was at the 4-yard line and tangling with Wright. Pearson caught the pass and walked in for the go-ahead touchdown. Wright immediately protested the call with field judge Armen Terzian, claiming offensive pass interference should have been called, and would have had the interception if he wasn’t interfered with. Coach Grant thought it was clearly a penalty:

From our side of the field, there is now question that Nate was pushed. No question. [Pearson] had nothing to lose. If they called a penalty on him, what had he lost? They would just line up and try another long pass. It was one chance in a hundred that he would get away with it, but it was the only chance he had.

Pearson claimed he was playing the ball, but admitted that he might have gotten called for a push:

It was a little bit short so I had come back a little and that gave me a chance to get away from Nate. The ball juggled around a little and I finally caught it between my elbow and my ribs. … I thought I might have gotten pass interference. It could have gone either way.

No penalty was called, and the touchdown stood.

Terzian gets pelted. The irate crowd was already throwing things onto the field, as an NFL Films slow-motion video shows an orange hitting the field during the touchdown reception. With the Vikings in possession for the final seconds of the game, Terzian, the field judge, was struck in the head by a bottle, rendering him unconscious. Bergman, the head linesman, immediately came to his aid and was holding Terzian’s head until the Vikings medical staff arrived. Terzian had to leave the game and backup official Charley Musser officiated his position for the final two plays. Terzian required 11 stitches to close the gash in his forehead.

There are two postscripts to Terzian’s career. First, he is immortalized in a 1978 NFL Films clip which Chiefs head coach Marv Levy was wearing a microphone on the sideline. After admitting in pregame that he went to the college with Terzian, he is later seen screaming one of the most memorable quotes captured by the NFL Films microphones (which I cannot find online without being doctored up by the uploader):

Hey, Armen. Hey, you over-officious jerk.

Second, Terzian moved to a replay judge in the first generation system in the mid-1980s. During a 1988 Giants–Cowboys game, the opening kickoff was muffed by the Cowboys receiver and was ruled a safety. Terzian should have overruled the call (as was the procedure in the earlier version of replay review), but he never called for a review. The points were decisive, as the Giants won 12-10. For his error, Terzian was suspended by commissioner Pete Rozelle, but Terzian opted to retire.

Terzian died in 1989 at the age of 74.

Video credit: NFL/CBS Sports. Photo  credit: Charles Curtis/Duluth News Tribune

Line judge Jeff Bergman was seen leaving the field on a cart after the end of the third quarter of the Giants–Vikings game in Detroit. He left the field on his feet with assistance, but was then was wheeled off to the locker room. Bergman was not hit on the play; either a pulled muscle or cramp has knocked him out. The remaining six-man crew will readjust to cover the missing official.

Jeff Triplette was the crew chief.

The NFL has ramped up its policy on avoiding concussions, and the policy has not excluded the referees. With high speed collisions involving the umpire position, the NFL has permanently moved the umpire to the offensive backfield, nine years after a pilot program of the switch was tried in the 2001 preseason.

The most violent collision from the 2009 season didn’t even involve the umpire, but a back judge covering a kickoff return. Rich Reels was bruised up quite a bit and had to sit a week out when he was caught off balance and hit by an upfield blocker. In addition to Reels’ injury, there were reports of concussions and other injuries. The league even considered giving the umpire a helmet.

The umpire position will be opposite the referee in the offensive backfield.

The umpire will now be located in the offensive backfield, rather than the center of the defensive backfield. The umpire will operate on the side opposite the referee, who is generally positioned on the side of the quarterback’s throwing arm. However, after the two minute warning in either half, the umpire will return to the defensive backfield.

There are no changes indicated in the 2010 NFL rule book under the umpire’s duties as a result of this change. (Oddly, the position of the umpire is not and never was discussed in the rule book, despite other officials’ positions being indicated.) However, there is a private manual for officials that express finer details of officiating mechanics which was overhauled.

The umpire will have to quickly set in position after maintaining the ball spot at the line of scrimmage. Once an offense comes to the line, the umpire must retreat to the offensive backfield (while avoiding the players moving from the huddle to the line of scrimmage) rather than a few yards behind the ball. Usually, the offense has to wait about a second for the umpire to be set, but it will likely take longer with the new positioning.

It will be interesting to see some of the bugs worked out in the preseason, and we will update you on any refinements as we are aware of them.

The original image used in the illustration is credited to Pats1 at en.wikipedia.

Referee Peter McCabe is recuperating from a vicious attack at the conclusion of a North American Football League game on Saturday in Rochester, N.Y. McCabe was allegedly assaulted by a player from the Western New York Cougars, who, according to reports, pummeled the referee with the player’s helmet.

McCabe’s nose was detached with most of his facial bones broken. His alleged assailant, Leon Woods, is in prison on $10,000 bail, charged today with first-degree assault.

Peter McCabe, a referee of a football game in Rochester, N.Y., is tended to after being allegedly struck in the face by a player swinging a helmet.

A witness, in a deposition released by police, claimed that he “heard a hard crack” while another said that he “saw the player swing his helmet over his head and hit McCabe in the face with [the] helmet.” Another official told a local TV station that the player was yelling, “Take that! Take that!”

The commissioner of the NAFL, Robin Williams, contacted the Zebra Blog on our request for comment. She expressed that the league is “deeply saddened by the event and wishes the injured referee a speedy and full recovery.”

“We’ve been managing a quality organization for the past 11 years and have never seen an incident like this before.”

We questioned whether the league conducted, or teams were required to conduct, background checks on their players. Williams stated, “In terms of background checks, the NAFL has a relationship with several other leagues, where we cross ban players and owners from joining our league, or vice versa, if that member had been banned by either organization. Because we do encourage mentoring, leadership and getting at-risk youth and adults off the street, we do not have a policy [of] banning players with former criminal or misdemeanor record.”

The Cougars applied for admission to the NAFL in 2009 but have yet to pay the league dues. Rather than canceling games, the NAFL permitted its teams to play the Cougars this year to help defray their costs.

McCabe is home right now, but scheduled to return to the hospital for more reconstructive surgery on Friday. In the meantime, the 25-year veteran official indicated that Saturday’s game will be his last.

Update, 10/29/09: A representative from the Cougars replied to our e-mail, stating that the team intends to issue a press release, but otherwise did not comment on the allegations or answer our questions.

The photo on this post was taken by another referee and is credited to 98.9 The Buzz in Rochester.

Only two items on this week’s “Official Review” with the league’s vice-president of officiating, Mike Pereira. Usually, we have a web-only video to go along with the NFL Network segment, but we only have one segment this week (video). We will take these out of order.

First: the injury to back judge Rich Reels. We asked the league for an update on his status, and they simply responded, “Reels returned to the game.” Pereira said that Reels suffered chest contusions, and that he was going to be out for a week. We also asked about the report of equiping officials with protective gear, but received a generic answer. Pereira did not indicate what may be under consideration, but he acknowledged that this is becoming an increased risk:

I think it’s time that we do take a look at getting them set up with some more protection, especially the umpires. The game has gotten faster, the players have gotten bigger. And whether it’s helmets, whether it’s shoulder pads, whether it’s moving him to an alternate position to get him out of the way, I think we’re going to have to look at it, because we are getting too many people hurt

Before we move on, we did not address the penalty that happened four plays earlier in the Vikings–Steelers game. A Vikings touchdown was taken off the board because of a trip call against the tight end, Jeff Dugan. Dugan blocked his defender low, but legally, and knocked the defender off his feet. This was obviously penalized incorrectly as tripping, which not only took the six points away, but also lead to a fumble return three plays later put six points on the other side of the scoreboard. The kickoff following the touchdown was the one which Reels was injured. Coincidentally, Dugan was the one that ran the official over. And to be clear, it was certainly an accident, we are not implying anything nefarious.

Pereira also addressed a clear incomplete pass in the Saints–Dolphins game that could not be reviewed because of a malfunction in the replay equipment. Periera explained the procedure that, in case of buggy equipment, the referee can wait no longer than two minutes, at which point the replay is abandoned for that play and the challenge is not docked from the coach. In this case, there was a malfunctioning switch froze the system which required the replay technician to reboot the system.

And, oddly, we think that the NFL Network’s Rich Eisen might be aspiring to replace Drew Carey with a couple of references to The Price Is Right. We’ll know for sure if he mentions Plinko in next week’s segment.

This morning, Adam Schefter reported on ESPN that the Competition Committee is looking to recommend that umpires wear protective headgear. The umpire position on the officiating crew, positioned in the middle of the field near the line of scrimmage on the defensive side, is the one most frequently subject to hard hits.

The issue of protecting the umpire was on the agenda at the owners meeting earlier this month in Boston. The Competition Committee makes recommended changes in the offseason on matters of safety and fair play, subject to league approval.

Of course, with all of the attention paid to the umpire position, just today we witnessed a back judge in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Week 7: Vikings at Steelers

During a breakaway runback by Percy Harvins of the Vikings on a kickoff return, back judge Rich Reels found himself right in the path of the coverage team. While running to cover the third quarter runback, he was caught off guard when the play quickly shifted away from the sideline and was plowed to the turf (video).

Reels left the field on his own feet, and the officiating crew reconfigured to six officials. His condition and his chance of return are unknown.