The Cowboys’ win over the Lions in the 2014 wild-card round was marred by the failure to call defensive holding (and possibly more) against Dallas. The following day, the league’s head of officiating publicly explained the situation, and acknowledged that at least one mistake had been made.
Now, the league has no one to provide similar public transparency. It doesn’t even try to do it. After the departure of Dean Blandino for Fox, the NFL lost and/or surrendered and/or decided it no longer cares about having someone who can and and will explain controversial calls to the media and, in turn, the fans.
Blandino left the NFL due in part to the reality that, as Blandino has said in the past, the league does not properly value the position. (That’s a tactful way of saying, “They’re too damn cheap.”) If Blandino were still employed by the league, he could have done the media rounds after the latest Lions-Cowboys controversy. And Blandino could have addressed, in his official capacity, the fundamental problem with the Lions’ insistence that its two-point play had been reviewed with officials before the game.
It’s not about the officials knowing about the play. It’s about the officials knowing about the pre-snap effort to confuse the Cowboys as to which of three different linemen were reporting as eligible. The Lions haven’t said that they reviewed the pre-snap shell game with the officials. So we asked Blandino if, in his experience, officials would ever go along with an effort by a team to confuse the defense as to which lineman will be eligible.
“If a coach told officials that, the officials would tell them they couldn’t do it,” Blandino said. “The referee would never go along with that and would make sure the defense knew exactly who was reporting.”
In other words, the insistence that coach Dan Campbell went over the play with the officials doesn’t matter. The problem arose from what happened before the play. And the Lions surely did not try to share that part of the plan with officials.
As confirmed by the fact that the effort to confuse the Cowboys also confused the officials.
If the league had someone like Blandino who could have, for example, appeared on the Sunday morning pregame shows or the various weekday programs and podcasts or who could have shot a video to be posted on social media, Blandino could have drilled down to the heart of the matter, quickly and efficiently.
Instead, the notion that the officials screwed up and/or that the league is “against” the Lions has taken root. While that wouldn’t have been completely countered if the NFL had activated the bat signal for Blandino, the proliferation of stories explaining the biggest flaw in the insistence that the play was reviewed with officials would have helped.
Which brings me back to a point I’ve made before, and will keep making. The NFL should bring Blandino back, for the sole purpose of providing consistent and complete explanations as to any and all controversial calls. And the NFL should properly value Blandino’s knowledge of the rules and his unique ability to communicate in a concise, clear, and persuasive way.
What’s it worth? Considering the overall revenues the NFL is generating (and in light of what they pay the Commissioner), $10 million per year is not unreasonable.