The end of last night’s Vikings-Rams game was marred by a face mask error that was seen by everyone except the officials responsible for seeing it. The league couldn’t do anything about it because face mask calls and non-calls can never be reviewed.
That could change. And so it should be.
All the NFL needs to do is add facemask fouls to the list of possible plays to review, via coach’s challenge, automatic replay review or replay assistance.
“Yes, it is likely that a face mask will appear this season,” chief NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told PFT via email on Friday, in response to a question about whether the Competition Committee will review the situation after the 2024 season concludes.
“Immediately iterating and what pieces should and should not be reviewed is part of the conversation every offseason, and it is expected to come up again,” McCarthy added. “Teams can propose a rule change and several proposals have previously been made about which rules and whether all rules should be reviewed.”
This change is really a no-brainer. There is no valid argument against it. In any case, last night’s group report from referee Tra Blake makes it even clearer that change is needed.
“[Thequarterbackwasfacingtheoppositedirectionfrommeso[Dequarterbackkeekdusindetegenovergestelderichtingvanmij[ThequarterbackwasfacingtheoppositedirectionfrommesoI didn’t look at it closelyBlake said. “I didn’t look and obviously I didn’t see the mask being taken off. The referee had players between him and the quarterback, so he didn’t get a view. He was also blocked. So that was the thing, we didn’t see it so we couldn’t mention it. We couldn’t see it.”
That’s fine. But everyone else could. That makes it exactly the kind of mistake that should be corrected by a repeat review.
