NFL officiating seems to be outdoing itself on a weekly basis. Not because it’s improving, but more because the officials seemed to bound and determined to take each week’s failure, and do something even more embarrassing the following week.
Enter the officials at Sundays game between the Dallas Cowboys and New England Patriots.
Late in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game, with the Cowboys driving for a game-winning touchdown, the officials threw a flag for tripping on Cowboys center Travis Frederick. The result of the play was that the Cowboys had their 3rd & 1 conversion called back, and were stuck with a 3rd and 11 instead.
Though, a simple look at the replay showed that Frederick in no way tripped the Patriots defender. A moment which should have led to universal agreement among broadcasters, in shaming the officials for making an egregiously awful call at a crucial point in the game.
However, that was not to be.
Fox rules analyst Mike Pereira defended the officials by saying that Frederick extended his leg and seemed to cause the Patriots player to fall. But, this foolish observation was too much for Aikman to take quietly.
You do not have to be a Cowboys fan, or a former Cowboys quarterback, to see the absurdity of this call. There had only been five accepted tripping calls in the NFL all year prior to yesterday. If what Frederick did is now tripping, be prepared to see 500 before the end of the year. It could literally be called on almost every play.
What’s worse, the call likely destroyed any chance Dallas has of winning the game. In this case, it was nice to see a broadcaster publicly call Pereira out for this absurdity.
Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter @themightygwinn