Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur isn’t shedding any tears over the decision to nix reviews of pass interference after just one season.
LaFleur wasn’t fond of the exercise last season that saw him questioning at times whether he still knew what pass interference actually was. LaFleur wasn’t the only one with that sentiment either. In an interview with ESPN Milwaukee, LaFleur was asked about the repealing of the rule and he was enthusiastic about not having to deal with it any longer.
“I was ecstatic,”LaFleur said, via Jason Wilde of the State Journal. “Don’t you guys remember how angry I would get when I would have to challenge a PI because I knew it wasn’t going to get overturned? I was extremely happy. It just takes that decision out of your hands.”
The move to review pass interference calls was a direct response to an egregiously missed pass interference call in the NFC Championship game between the New Orleans Saints and Los Angeles Rams in 2018. However, the rule change was viewed almost unanimously as a massive failure due to a seemingly ever-changing threshold of evidence that saw barely any plays overturned early in the season.
LaFleur did say that he could see a “sky judge” being a reasonable alternative eventually.
“It’s really the egregious missed calls that you’re trying to eliminate, if you can have somebody upstairs that can see it. It’s not meant for the ticky-tack calls. I think that would be the best way, just to experiment that way. I know that was kicked around two years ago at the owner’s meetings, but it obviously didn’t go through,” LaFleur said.
The NFL approved expanded duties for replay officials in the preseason as a trial experiment for this fall. However, pass interference will not be a part of their purview.
