NFL tells officials not to enforce specific penalty for conference championship games and Super Bowl
As if we needed more referee discourse, fear not.
There is more on the way.
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Pro Football Network's Mike Florio had an interesting report on Monday night, after he noticed something during the first half of the Bills-Ravens divisional round game.
It was first-and-goal from the eight when Josh Allen handed the ball off to James Cook.
The Bills running back got down near the one, when guard O’Cyrus Torrence then tried to pull him across into the end zone.
By the letter of the law, Torrence should have been flagged for doing so.
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The NFL rulebook says: “No offensive player may pull a runner in any direction at any time.”
The penalty is ten yards.
To be clear, pushing from behind is allowed, but pulling from the front is not.
Apparently the NFL is disregarding its own rule.
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They don't care, nor will they start to care with three games left.
Mike Florio sought to gather more information on the rule, and his findings on Monday evening were revealing.
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"Per a source with knowledge of the situation, the NFL will not be instructing officials to call it, if/when it happens in either of the two conference championship games," .
"As the source explained it, instructing them to call it now would represent too much of a change from the enforcement of the rules to date in the 2024 season."
Through the first two weeks of the postseason, the officiating has already been a hot topic of conversation.
Troy Aikman called out the officials for the way they were handling Patrick Mahomes in the Chiefs' win over the Texans.
After the game, head coach DeMeco Ryans and a handful of Texans players also questioned the officiating.
“We knew going into this game, man, it was us vs. everybody,” Ryans said.
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“When I say everybody, it’s everybody. All the whatever – the naysayers, the doubt.
"Everybody, we had to go against today."
It was an indirect, albeit clear shot, at the officials.
In regards to the rule about not being able to pull a player forward, that's small peanuts.
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Most fans don't even know that rule exists.
And if Florio is to be believed, the NFL is pretending not to either.
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