DETROIT — Although NFL commissioner Roger Goodell didn’t directly address a controversial penalty on Taylor Decker in the Detroit Lions’ Week 17 loss to the Dallas Cowboys, he did address officiating, in general, while speaking Wednesday at Ford Field to promote the NFL draft and said the league’s officials are doing “an extraordinary job.”
Goodell engaged in a “fireside chat” emceed by NBC play-by-play broadcaster and Michigan resident Mike Tirico at the home of the Lions.
Tirico addressed the subject by noting two specific mistakes he made on this weekend’s playoff broadcasts and saying that nobody within the game is perfect.
“Analysts (aren’t) perfect, coaches aren’t perfect, our quarterbacks aren’t perfect — they throw incompletions — running backs miss the hole, but we ask the officials to be perfect,” Tirico said before offering Goodell a chance to speak on the league’s efforts to improve that part of the game.
“I’m proud of our officials. They do an extraordinary job, but they aren’t perfect. They’re making decisions out there in a matter of seconds,” Goodell said.
Lions fans are particularly sensitive to the topic, given the team’s long and complicated history with officiating, and the fact one of the season’s biggest refereeing controversies worked against Detroit in the loss to Dallas. The Lions thought they had taken a 21-20 lead against the Cowboys with 23 seconds remaining after a two-point conversion, which was then reversed after Decker, an offensive lineman, was penalized for not reporting as eligible before catching a pass to convert the try.
Decker was once again at the center of an officiating controversy in Sunday’s 24-23 playoff win over the Los Angeles Rams. On Detroit’s final drive before halftime, he was called for a false start that appeared to actually be a neutral-zone infraction committed by Rams linebacker Ernest Jones.
Following the Dallas game, Detroit maintained its process was correct and that referee Brad Allen made a mistake. To the chagrin of Lions fans everywhere, feedback from the league office in the days that followed seemed to indicate that the NFL sided with its officials in the ordeal.
Goodell said there are some times when officials get a call right and are still criticized. Though it’d seem a logical leap to conclude he was talking about the Detroit-Dallas game, it’s more likely he was talking about a situation between Buffalo and Kansas City in mid-December, when the Chiefs became publicly incensed about an offsides penalty on Kadarius Toney that was actually called correctly.
But the message is all the same, regardless.
“What we’ve seen in a variety of situations this year — without getting into any specifics — is they get it right and they’re still criticized,” Goodell said.
“And you know, there are two teams out there, so — (for example), is he offsides or not offsides?” Goodell said. “That’s just part of their job. They are the hardest-working people I see. They take great pride in it. There are individuals who work to try to make sure they’re contributing to the game, but we have technology to try to do that, too.
“I’m very proud of what they do.”
