You’ve all seen the replay of the ending to Monday night’s Seahawks-Lions game, when Seattle linebacker K.J. Wright appeared to bat the ball out of the end zone after a Calvin Johnson fumble. Here, watch it again.
Back judge Greg Wilson, as you can see, had a front-row seat for the play and ruled that Wright did not send the ball out of bounds on purpose. Thus, the Seahawks were awarded the ball at the 20 and ran out the clock. But after the game, NFL chief of official Dean Blandino ruled that Wilson messed up: Because Wright clearly hit the ball out of bounds on purpose, an illegal-touching penalty should have been called, giving the Lions the ball half the distance to the goal line from the spot of the fumble.
Because there was a turnover involved, the play was reviewed. However, because the ruling in question was a judgment call in the NFL’s eyes, that aspect of the play was not subject to review.
So what’s next for Wilson? As is the case for every NFL ref in every game, he will have his work reviewed by a number of supervisors who will send him a tape noting where he made incorrect calls along with plays in which he made the correct calls. Wilson can then appeal any instance in which he feels he was incorrectly graded.
Like NFL players, the postseason is the goal for the league’s officials. Every official is placed into one of three tiers by their supervisors (they are no longer ranked individually, as was done in the past). The officials in the top tier get to work playoff games; the others don’t, with officials in the lowest-performing third tier subject to “enhanced training” and “a focus on them and their development,” Blandino said per ESPN. Two consecutive years in the third tier means an official could be fired.
The NFL has the authority to demote officials during the season, though it’s highly unlikely it would ever go that far without a ref making a truly horrendous series of calls.
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