4th Quarter | :04 remaining | Raiders 25-20 | Bears ball | 1st & 10 @ CHI 46 | video

After completing a pass to receiver Matt Forte, Bears quarterback Caleb Hanie called for a spike to stop the clock. Hanie delayed, as if he intended to fake the spike, then committed to spiking the ball. Because a clock-stopping spike (ruled an incomplete pass) must occur immediately, the fact that Hanie delayed caused the play to be ruled intentional grounding, as if it was any other pass play. Also, the penalty carries a 10-second runoff, so the remaining four seconds were docked from the clock, and the game ended right there.

Refreree Ron Winter briefly conferenced on the penalty before the announcement, but it is absolutely the correct call.

From Rule 8, Section 2, Article 1:

Item 3: Stopping Clock. A player under center is permitted to stop the game clock legally to save time if, immediately upon receiving the snap, he begins a continuous throwing motion and throws the ball directly into the ground.
Item 4: Delayed Spike. A passer, after delaying his passing action for strategic purposes, is prohibited from throwing the ball to the ground in front of him, even though he is under no pressure from defensive rusher(s).

Since this is essentially news about the officials, we are listing these calls and non-calls from Week 1.

• As noted in this site’s discipline report, Giants safety Kenny Phillips was fined $10,000 for an unspecified play against the Redskins. Ron Winter’s crew missed a blow to the head by Phillips.
• Carl Cheffers’ crew penalized Cardinals cornerback Richard Marshall for unnecessary roughness on a shoulder-to-shoulder hit on Panthers quarterback Cam Newton. Marshall revealed on Twitter (@TheMarshall31) that he would not be fined by the league office. The incorrect penalty, however, was costly, as it nullified the Cardinals interception on the play, and was followed by a Jaguars touchdown two plays later. There is no video of the play, but since the referee has coverage of the quarterback, it is likely that Cheffers, himself, threw the erroneous flag.
• Texans safety Danieal Manning was flagged for his hit on Colts receiver Pierre Garçon. The penalty was for a hit on a defenseless receiver, however an analysis by the Houston Chronicle (with video below) showed the hit was legal as Garçon’s head contacted Manning’s thigh. Manning was not fined. Walt Coleman’s crew officiated the game.

Video credit NFL/CBS Sports with commentary from Houston Chronicle.

The NFL does not generally make public announcements regarding mistaken calls by the referees. Occasionally, they will contact the team with such an admission, and these conversations are generally confidential. Generally, these conversations are only leaked out, and Vikings coach Brad Childress found out two weeks ago that the league doesn’t appreciate these admissions making the public wire. He was fined for disclosing this confidential information.

It’s unknown whether a league or team source was the tip-off, but Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter Gerry Dulac  reported on Friday that the NFL had agreed with Steelers coach Mike Tomlin on two contested calls from the Monday night game. The two calls on consecutive plays helped set up the Bengals on the 1-yard line for a fourth-quarter touchdown:

• A low-hit call on Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer was penalized 15 yards on nose tackle Casey Hampton.
• Cornerback Ike Taylor was penalized for pass interference on Bengals receiver Terrell Owens.

The first call is in an odd category of an acceptable call. The league has long told the officials that if they are unsure of head and knee contact being illegal, they should err on the side of safety and call the penalty. So even though the league may agree that there was no penalty because Palmer’s thigh was contacted, and not his knee, the official was following the safety-first provision.

The crew was headed by Ron Winter.

• R Ron Winter (14)
• U Butch Hannah (40)
• HL John McGrath (5)
• LJ Darryll Lewis (130)
• SJ Steve Zimmer (33)
• BJ Rick Patterson (15)
• FJ Perry Paganelli (46)

In the replay booth are the replay assistant Ken Baker and video operator Jim Grant.

The officiating supervisors for the game are Ed Coukart and new vice-president of officiating Carl Johnson.

Please leave your comments on the calls of the game in this article, and we will address them during the week.

We did not specifically address the star-treatment aspect here, as there is an entire conspiracy movement well documented on the Internet that the officials are out to “get” certain teams or protect certain players.

The conspiracy movement gained some steam over the past week with two hairline judgment calls in the Week 4 Ravens–Patriots game. The league won’t weigh in on whether the calls were bad, because it does not want to affect future judgment calls. In fact, the league’s Game-Related Discipline manual distributed to the players specifically addresses such judgment calls:

The Competition Committee emphasizes that whenever a game official is confronted with a potential unnecessary-roughness situation and is in doubt about calling a foul, he should lean toward safety and not hesitate to throw the flag.

Some have seized upon the effort of Tom Brady to draw a 15-yard penalty against the defense, and this week’s “Official Review” segment on NFL Total Access has the video of the play in question. After mostly evading a hit from Terrell Suggs, Brady turns to referee Ron Winter and gestures for a penalty flag. Winter, who is already reaching for the flag, nods to Brady and throws the flag. To those believing there is a conspiracy, this looked like Winter acquiesced to Brady’s plea, rather than—having already decided to penalize—merely acknowledged Brady’s request. (Much like if a quarterback unsuccessfully lobbies for the call, the referee would likely shake his head “no.”)

Not surprisingly, the commissioner yesterday dismissed claims of impropriety:

I don’t think they influence the officials. I take a different position. I think it’s really to some extent a coaching matter. The players should be playing. They should be focused on doing their job. And the officials need to do their job. If it interfered with the officials doing their job, then I would have more of a concern. I don’t think it influences the officials. I don’t think it’s been a problem that has been raised to me that it’s a conflict or in any way difficult for our officials to manage on the field.

First, there is no video of the play in question online, only the postgame reaction by the Ravens’ Ray Lewis.

Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs was flagged for low contact with Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. Brady’s brief 2008 season—cut short due to a knee injury in the season opener—no doubt prompted extra scrutiny on low hits for all quarterbacks. However, Suggs barely contacted Brady and was, in fact, blocked into Brady’s path. Under the rule that is not a penalty. This is under the responsibility of the referee; for this game, it was Ron Winter.

Lewis’s comments as reported by The Baltimore Sun:

That’s embarrassing to our game … Fine me, do whatever you please, I’m not speaking against anybody. It’s embarrassing for them to treat one person on a football field different from anybody else. That’s what’s embarrassing about this game. You cannot do that. You’ve got to let the game take care of itself like it just did. But when you call penalties like that, it takes away from the love of the game because you can get a Tom Brady to walk by you and say something like, “Oh, that’s a cheap one.” Wow.

There is speculation that Lewis will be fined for his comments. While it’s a high-profile grievance, he did not (at least in the excerpts we have found) complain about the call, but the rule.

The Packers clearly had a successful 2-point conversion late in the game. One replay was aired prior to the kickoff that showed it was close but, undeniably, was a complete pass.

As soon as the replay cleared the screen, whistles were heard to initiate a booth review of the play. This hearkens back to comments by Mike Pereira, head of officials, on his assessment of the Cardinals’ final play in Super Bowl XLIII:

You learn and … next time it happens, at this point of the game, this big of a play, let’s go ahead and [call for a replay review].

Pereira said that the replay guidelines would be revised to reflect this. I am calling it the “critical juncture review,” or the replay to satisfy the conspiracy theorists.

The replay official was Ken Baker and the referee was Ron Winter.

Plenty of attention is placed on the punishing physical abuse on the players’ bodies. Although NFL officials don’t get knocked around to often, they must be in top physical shape to keep up with players younger than their children.

Unfortunately for Carroll, his knees told him at the beginning of the season that 2008 would be his last. He officiated his last game in the Colts–Chargers overtime Wild Card game under referee Ron Winter. Carroll, in fact, called one of the two defensive holding penalties on the Colts in the extra session.

He worked on Jeff Triplette’s crew for seven years.

“Some guys like to be rock stars, some guys like to grab headlines,” Triplette said. “Duke was one of those guys who went out and did his job day in and day out.

“If I was his dad, I’d be proud to call him my son. He just makes you so proud.”

Carroll started in the NFL in 1995, the year that the expansion Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars joined the league, necessitating more officials.