Replay officials might be permitted to throw flags for select penalties if the NFL competition committee approves the expanded role.
Troy Vincent, vice president of football operations for the league, said the specific purview of replay officials under consideration involves non-football acts.
“You don’t want to just be just expanding the Pandora’s box, but we believe that things like the non-football act, you can really, really restrict what that is,” Vincent said at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, where the committee is meeting Monday afternoon. “That’s something that we believe that potentially there’s a little bit of tweaking in the language, that may be the first step.”
Vincent pointed to what would have been a penalty and possible ejection from Super Bowl LX when Seahawks cornerback Josh Jobe struck Patriots wide receiver Stefon Diggs. No penalty flag was thrown by game officials who separated the players after they grabbed each other by the facemask.
Replay clearly showed Diggs taking a left-handed punch to his helmet, and game cameras were fixed for more than 30 seconds on Patriots coach Mike Vrabel’s reaction to the non-call of a violation of the type of non-football act Vincent was discussing Monday.
Vincent said there is less resistance to the idea than in past discussions but cautioned any change would be implemented strategically as “the first step in getting to putting flags on the field” for replay officials.
He said reports are accurate and that no team submitted a proposal to banning the “tush push,” a hot topic of debate last offseason when the Packers introduced the idea as a player safety issue. Despite support on both sides, the proposal to prohibit Philadelphia’s trademark short-yardage play failed.
