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Saints at Panthers | 1st quarter | 3:05 remaining | video. Panthers receiver Steve Smith scored a touchdown and was immediately plowed over by Saints safety Roman Harper. You don’t need to drag out the Pythagorean theorem to see that Harper’s angle on the play only has him meeting Smith in the end zone, and not before. Should this hit have resulted in an ejection? | 2nd quarter | 5:32 remaining | video. Saints running back Mark Ingram was flagged for taunting on his touchdown run, which will likely lighten his pocket with a $7,500 fine this week.

 Titans at Steelers | 3rd quarter | 2:01 remaining | video. Well, this is embarrassing! A recovery of an onside kickoff by Titans special teamer Alterraun Verner has line judge Byron Boston pointing one way and first-year field judge David Meslow pointing the other way. Meslow quickly recanted his possession arrow to indicate Titans ball. Walt Anderson was the referee.

Eagles at Bills | 4th quarter | 1:23 remaining | video. The only reason this gets mentioned is that a pre-snap penalty rarely makes a highlight reel. A neutral zone infraction by Eagles defensive lineman Juqua Parker is the football equivalent of a bottom-of-the-ninth, tie-game, bases-loaded balk.

Image credit: NFL/CBS Sports

Total through Week 3: 19 fines, $235,000.

• Patriots defensive lineman Richard Seymour, $7,500 for unnecessary roughness and $7,500 for facemask foul.
• Patriots safety Patrick Chung, $7,500 for unnecessary roughness.
• Ravens defensive tackle Haloti Ngata, $15,000 for leading with helmet on a tackle. The hit resulted in a fumble returned for a touchdown, which should have been nullified by penalty.
• Steelers center Maurkice Pouncey, $7,500 for unnecessary roughness.
• 49ers tackle Anthony Davis, $25,000, two leg whip penalties.
• Bears safety Brandon Meriweather, $20,000 for a helmet-to-helmet hit (as a repeat offender).
• Eagles defensive end Jason Babin, $15,000 for a hit to the quarterback’s neck.
• Redskins special teamer Niles Paul, $20,000 for hit on a defenseless receiver.

This week: 9 fines, $125,000

Look for updates later in the day. If you see something, you can add a comment to this post or reduce it to 140 characters or less (@footballzebras).

Giants at Cardinals

Victor Cruz’s catch has become its own post.

Jerome Boger’s crew had a simultaneous timeout call from the Giants’ sideline and a coach’s challenge from the Cardinals sideline. (Fox Sports put the tape of the two coaches split screen—it would take a slo-mo replay to determine who was first.) The crew granted both requests, rather than returning the Giants timeout on account of the replay. Fox Sports sideline vagabond Tony Siragusa was able to get a very unusual in-game comment from umpire Carl Paganelli that the on-field ruling was the timeout call came first.

While the split screen only showed the coaches, there were also players on the Giants defensive line calling timeout as well. It is unclear if the officials called the timeout based on a player’s or the coach’s signal.

Steelers at Texans

The Texans had two touchdowns nullified. First, a blocked field goal that was returned for a touchdown (video) had an obvious penalty for illegal block in the back. Clete Blakeman had the full explanation, including the fact that the half ends on the play without the quarter being extended. Then, in the fourth quarter, an interception return for a touchdown was wiped out by a late hit on Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger by Texans J.J. Watt.

Saints at Jaguars

The EverBank Field grounds crew made a glaring error when painting the lines on the field, but ultimately one that would confuse viewers, not the officiating crew.

Each 10-yard increment (with the exception of the 50-yard line) is marked with an arrow pointing towards the nearest goal line. It is essentially for the benefit of television viewers to be able to discern which side of the field is on the screen.

However, the grounds crew placed a fourth of all the arrows pointing the wrong way. On the same yard line, the arrows on either side of the field pointed to opposite ends.

Great googily moogily!

Photo courtesy of Fox Sports Florida.

Each week, we keep track of the fines assessed by the NFL for on-field incidents. Total through Week 2: 11 fines, $170,000.

•  Titans tight end Daniel Graham, $5,000, throwing ball into stands.
• Titans defensive end Jason Jones, $15,000, facemask-to-helmet hit.
• Falcons safety William Moore, $7,500, helmet-to-helmet hit.
• Browns defensive lineman Phil Taylor, $7,500, late hit on quarterback (appealing fine).
• Browns wide receiver Mohamed Massaquoi, undisclosed, excessive celebration penalty.
• Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown, $7,500, low block (appealing fine).
• Steelers linebacker James Farrior, $15,000, late hit on quarterback.

For Massaquoi, the NFL’s 2011 Schedule of Fines lists taunting as a minimum $7,500 for a first offense. To keep the meter functioning properly, we will use this amount until verification is found.

This week: 8 fines, $65,000 (estimated).

Rarely does an assignment of a referee get a post of its own. The elements of irony either missed or intentionally ignored by the officiating department elevates one particular assignment to newsworthy status.

Bill Leavy, the referee in Super Bowl XL (2005 season) between the Steelers and the Seahawks, will officiate Sunday’s game between the Steelers and the Seahawks. The city of Seattle felt victimized by several bad calls, which is nothing new for the homers of a team losing the Big Game in any sport.

Except for this twist: Leavy publicly admitted to the Seahawks last year that his officiating in that game was not up to championship standards:

It was a tough thing for me. I kicked two calls in the fourth quarter and I impacted the game, and as an official you never want to do that. It left me with a lot of sleepless nights, and I think about it constantly. I’ll go to my grave wishing that I’d been better … I know that I did my best at that time, but it wasn’t good enough … When we make mistakes, you got to step up and own them. It’s something that all officials have to deal with, but unfortunately when you have to deal with it in the Super Bowl it’s difficult.

The admission notwithstanding, Danny O’Neil of The Seattle Times took to Twitter to get readers’ reaction to the assignment. While the city remains “officially offended,” Leavy is still no better than a runner-up for Seattle’s Worst; that honor appears to be reserved for Clayton Bennett, the owner who moved the NBA’s SuperSonics from Seattle to Oklahoma City in 2008. In another dose of bitter irony to the city, Bennett was named chairman of the NBA relocation committee this year.

Each week, we will try to tally the fines and suspensions imposed for on-field conduct this year. The NFL does not officially report this information; usually a team beat reporter will confirm with the league, so it is a patchwork effort to produce this list.

• Steelers cornerback Troy Polamalu, fined $15,000, horse-collar tackle
• Steelers cornerback Ike Taylor, $15,000, headbutting an opponent. This lead to the brawl that flattened referee Tony Corrente to the turf.
• Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo, $15,000, horse-collar tackle
• Packers cornerback Charles Woodson, $10,000, throwing a punch. Obviously, this was not seen by Clete Blakeman’s crew, because Woodson should have been ejected.
• 49ers linebacker Ahmad Brooks, $7,500, roughing the passer
• Giants safety Antrel Rolle, $20,000, spearing
• Giants safety Kenny Phillips, $10,000, striking head or neck area (was not penalized during the game).

Current tally: 7 fines, $92,500.

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.

read more »

Week 15: Jets at Steelers

A failure in basic officiating crew mechanics is rare in the NFL. While there is room for argument on a judgment call or a missed call, errors in mechanics are inexcusable.

In the second quarter on a first-and-10 play from the Jets 35, Steelers running back Rashard Mendenhall gained nine yards. Line judge John Hussey clearly spotted the ball at the 26, way short of the line to gain (video). The CBS yellow-line graphic is estimated by a technician outside of the stadium, so it cannot be counted on for accuracy. However, we don’t need the benefit of the first-down graphic; we can clearly see that the Steelers had to advance to the 25.

(A similar instance happened in Week 14 between the Redskins and Buccaneers, but ultimately it appears that there was confusion, not an incorrect call. We hope to have a post up on that soon.)

There are two first down markers: the 10-yard chain and a reference (or “auxilary”) marker placed on the first down line on the sideline opposite the chain. The chain is the official demarcation of a first down, and we can clearly see that both stakes are placed exactly on the 35- and 25-yard lines. That is what makes this even more troubling, because it is certainly easier to judge a first-down line that is on, rather than between, the five-yard intervals.

Although not seen in the video, referee Pete Morelli would have signaled first down after the run. Only then would the chain crew advance to mark a new set of downs. However, head linesman George Hayward has a responsibility for the chain crew, and in this case, should have been the first to step in to correct the error. Hussey, as line judge, and opposite the head linesman, should have been the second one to call out the error. In addition, umpire Ruben Fowler, while hovering over the ball to maintain the spot until the next play, should have noticed that the ball did not advance to the 25-yard stripe, when the previous down was dead on the 35-yard line.

The spot of the ball in relation to the first-down marker can be challenged in replay, but the Jets would have had to use one of their challenges.

The Steelers completed the drive with a touchdown. Following the erroneous first down, the Steelers had an incomplete pass and were sacked, which, not counting a different play selection based on the down, would have brought up a 4th-and-8.

An odd side effect of the phantom first down: fantasy football. Mendenhall rushed for exactly 100 yards, including the one yard the statisticians had to give him in order to credit him with the first down.

Week 12: Colts at Chargers

An item that flew by our desk late last week that we are getting to now: Colts head coach Jim Caldwell, quoted in Friday morning’s Indianapolis Star, said that the league admitted to a blown call in the game the previous Sunday.

An Eric Weddle interception of Colts’ quarterback Peyton Manning should not have counted according to the NFL, said Caldwell. Weddle was guilty of pass interference on Reggie Wayne, however none of the officials called it (video). Weddle returned the interception for a touchdown in a game where one score was not decisive. While pointing out the mea culpa, the league never apologized for the error, Coach Caldwell said:

Sorry is not part of their response. It’s just a declaration that, “We did indeed miss that one; it should have been called.”

Alberto Riverón’s crew was officiating.

Recently fired Vikings head coach Brad Childress revealed NFL confidential discussions of this nature in Week 7 and was fined $35,000 for the infraction. The Steelers also had a Week 9 discussion leak from an unidentified source.

Week 13: Steelers at Ravens

Two Ravens players who had hits that were not penalized were fined by the league Monday night.

• Haloti Ngata was fined $15,000 for a hit that Picassoed the face of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and should make sneezing a challenge (video of Big Ben’s crooked nose here).
• Jameel McClain was fined $40,000 for his helmet-to-helmet hit on tight end Heath Miller (video). Miller suffered a concussion and is now under the league’s strict concussion policies before being cleared to play.

The fines, which are usually Wednesday–Friday business, came out less than 24 hours after the game ended. The speed of justice in this case, without a doubt, was to keep the Steelers from complaining about the league’s vandetta against the team. Or, at least to quell the discussion of the “conspiracy.”

Terry McAulay’s crew officiated the Sunday Night Football game.