‘You Create a Credibility Issue’
The NFL is hearing a chorus of disapproval over the way it officiates football games, including from a Super Bowl champion and Hall of Famer.
Tony Dungy, former Colts coach and NBC staffer Football night in Americatook the league to task on social media for allowing a blatant fumble by Eagles QB Jaden Hurts on a Tush Push play to stand, after an in-game video replay ruled the play unreviewable due to stopping Hurts’ progress.
Per league rules, the game is not eligible for review.
For Dungy, this reasoning did not hold.
“The NFL needs to get rid of these categories that are ‘non-reviewable’! You can’t let New York jump in and change plays and say ‘the expedited review told us…’ – and then have obvious misses that remain unchanged. That’s what the review process was put in place for. We had a few in our GB-Pitt game, and it’s terrible. When you change some obvious plays and not others, you create a problem of credibility, and that’s what we have now.”
Dungy didn’t stop there; he also pointed to games in the Packers-Steelers contest that he said should have been canceled.
The Tush Push remained a nightmare for the league (except the Eagles) and its officials. Cameras have caught Philadelphia offensive linemen false starting in nearly every Tush Push game and, despite the league promising a few weeks ago to officiate the game more closely, none of those penalties have been called.
Hurts’ fumble on Sunday was particularly egregious, given that it occurred outside the pile and was clearly visible to all. The league attempted to ban the game during the offseason. But he failed to pass the measure by two votes.
