Hail Mary plays could be exempt from replay review for interference
 

The NFL’s decision to extend replay review to pass interference penalties may prevent another 2019 Rams-Saints outcome (if the coach of the team on the wrong side of the bad call still has at least one challenge left, and at least one time out), but it may not prevent another 1975 Cowboys-Vikings.

Some of you may remember that one. I remember it all too well. (As does Hall of Fame head coach Tony Dungy, who at the time was a student at the University of Minnesota.) The postseason game that resulted in Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach coining the “Hail Mary” phrase culminated in what appeared to be a two-handed shove by receiver Drew Pearson of Vikings defensive back Nate Wright, allowing Pearson to catch the ball and score the game-winning touchdown. (It didn’t help matters that Vikings safety Paul Krause sauntered into view too late to keep Pearson from scoring.)

If that ever happens again (and assuming that today’s NFL broadcasts would consist of sufficient camera angles to provide a definitive view of the push), the new rule aimed at preventing a major controversy in a postseason game (or any other game) possibly won’t apply. Via Judy Battista of NFL Media, the “tweak” (i.e., major surgery) of the new expansion to eliminate automatic review of pass interference calls and non-calls would also exempt from coach’s challenges the Hail Mary play.

That’s a somewhat convoluted way of saying Hail Mary plays would not be subject to replay review.

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Re: Hail Mary plays could be exempt from replay review for interference
 

I posted about this in another thread, sorry for double post.

Reviewing all pass interference and non-calls is going to open the Pandora's box to a whole lot of other stuff....

Re: Hail Mary plays could be exempt from replay review for interference
 

Rigger Roger
I can't wait until that s.o.b dissappears!!
I know he's just the league's personal ***** but it still doesn't make me despise his crooked shell of **** any less.

Re: Hail Mary plays could be exempt from replay review for interference
 

Hail Mary'e are 'jump ball', everyone is the "intended receiver".

I suspect the bigger argument and gray area is defining “Hail Mary”. We know one when we see one but if you can’t clearly define one it will be a fluster cluck.

Re: Hail Mary plays could be exempt from replay review for interference
 

Re: Hail Mary plays could be exempt from replay review for interference
 

Agreed 100% It's a cop-out by the league.

Re: Hail Mary plays could be exempt from replay review for interference
 

I agree. The non call screwed us, but there is going to be a lot of BS and some unhappy people when the slightest thing happens and it throws the game.

All I can say is that the Saints usually like to keep wins close. That's not a good thing under these review rules. You better be winning pretty convincingly with these review rules.

Re: Hail Mary plays could be exempt from replay review for interference
 

'Theoretically' clean and clear. Now apply it.

Who is the one player in position in #10, #8, #5, #2?

I am inclined to believe that allowing a Referee to decide which player is in position would lead to Saints vs Rams controversial calls.

Re: Hail Mary plays could be exempt from replay review for interference
 

We're still the only team that was ever called for interference on a Hail Mary.
It was called on Jimmy Graham about 6 years ago if you all remember.

Re: Hail Mary plays could be exempt from replay review for interference
 

Against the 49er's in the Dome. The DB flopped and Graham got flagged. It was the last play of regulation. The Saints lost in OT. I think it was the same game Kaepernick threw a TD pass on 4Th and forever.

Re: Hail Mary plays could be exempt from replay review for interference
 

I remember that. The defender really sold that "flop" to the refs but Jimmy did push em ;) ...

Re: Hail Mary plays could be exempt from replay review for interference
 

Smart play by the DB. He should be in the NBA!

Re: Hail Mary plays could be exempt from replay review for interference
 

:popcorn:

Re: Hail Mary plays could be exempt from replay review for interference
 

So"Hail Mary's" will be governed by "The Apostles Creed"? (Officials and The Comish)

Re: Hail Mary plays could be exempt from replay review for interference
 

Re: Hail Mary plays could be exempt from replay review for interference
 

When this comes back and screws us over in a game, I don't want to hear a word about it from fans who are still blaming the entire NFCCG loss on the non-call. Games like that do not come down to just one call, but we got the rule change to make everyone happy.

We led the league last year in defensive pass interference calls. That is my biggest concern with this rule change. It could easily come back and screw us hard.

Re: Hail Mary plays could be exempt from replay review for interference
 

What I like the most about a no-call situation is that everyone goes into the play knowing how to play it. Otherwise a defender is playing against the receiver and the thin line between what a certain REF will or will not call. A QB KNOWS all he has to do is throw it in Crawley's direction and he is going to facepalm a receiver, first down, they have done exactly that over and over again.

Please pardon my approach, I still view football as a gladiator sport where two men actually battle for an outcome. Not a convoluted game of rules and spandex where everyone has an equally engineered chance.

Re: Hail Mary plays could be exempt from replay review for interference
 

Re: Hail Mary plays could be exempt from replay review for interference
 

I believe it's true that margin of victory in the NFL is a lot closer now than it was 20-30 years ago. I don't have stats to prove this, but it seems that in the last several years, most games by the week will be determined by 10 or less points. There are still blow outs, but they don't seem to be as common as they were a long time ago.

Ever since the NFL realigned the divisions, it's led to more 9-7 type teams making the playoffs, but also increased the number of 1-15 and 2-14 type dumpster fire teams. These teams usually will have a number of close games they could've won. The 0-16 Lions and Browns both had at least 4 games decided by 7 points or less that were winnable (Cleveland lost 6 close games in their 0-16 season).

Re: Hail Mary plays could be exempt from replay review for interference
 

Those 7-9 years for the Saints with a few Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda's would have ended up 10-6.

Re: Hail Mary plays could be exempt from replay review for interference
 

True.

I apologize if I am derailing this topic in a way to talk about the changes in parity in the NFL. This is something we could discuss at length as a topic itself and I often see it brought up in stat based NFL communities with people who run stats from before 2002 and then compare it to the modern era.

I think it was incredibly rare for a team to go 7-9 or 8-8 for 3 consecutive years in the old NFL before 2002. Usually a back to back average season spawned a playoff run the next year, or the team simply crashed and burned, requiring a rebuild.

There was a point where 2 of 3 divisions in a conference had 5 teams. The old NFC West we were a part of was like this when Carolina became a team. This made the schedules crazy cause for these teams in a division of 5 teams, half of their games were divisional. Another weird thing was playing a non-divisional opponent twice during the same season (because I recently ran stats on the early-mid 90's Chargers, it's fresh on my mind that they played the Colts twice in 1992, stomping them both times).

The infamous "last place schedule" also was a big deal and the best example that most people use of teams benefiting from this is the 1999 Rams, whom still to this day had the easiest schedule of a SB winning team. Their schedule was a ridiculously easy cake walk of garbage teams and yet they were 0-3 against the only teams above .500 that they played.

1998 Cardinals and our beloved 2000 Saints are also other examples of the last place schedule benefiting a team. That Cards team was the one that made us all believe Jake Plummer was going to be future elite QB - he had 7 game winning drives that year, all 7 against teams below .500. Our 2000 Saints were a lot better, cause we still nearly made the playoffs the next year while the Cards plummeted in 1999.

Long story short; the last place schedule was meant to help those garbage teams that were bad for years on end (unless a team decided to outright tank). This was the main thing that kept Tampa Bay from being a 2-14 dumpster fire in the years after 1986.

There is no way to create a last place schedule in a 4 team, 4 division conference the way the league has been set up since 2002. We still get those flukey 9-7 or 8-8 playoff teams, but this is still the result of a weak conference, which was the case in the old NFL. The years we had division winners with losing records (2010 Seattle and 2014 Carolina) was the result of an entire division being terrible.

The NFL has always prided itself being the one national league in the U.S. that has parity. This type of stuff never happened in the NBA or MLB (both those leagues have a problem with a handful of teams dominating it and star players driving the league - parity in the NBA has been a joke forever). Even in modern days, they are so worried about parity, sometimes I believe the fans conspiracy theories about refs keeping games close for the sake of viewership (seen too many games in the past decade that are only wins of 10 points or less but should've been blow outs).

Re: Hail Mary plays could be exempt from replay review for interference
 

Re: Hail Mary plays could be exempt from replay review for interference
 

Re: Hail Mary plays could be exempt from replay review for interference
 

What worries me is the "money" (legalized betting) will be in hundreds of millions if not billions. How can any league keep "the game pure" when we all know money talks. What's a million dollars to an official and/or a player to "turn a blind eye" or "blow an assignment" on any given play?