NFL Admits Mistake In Roughing Call Against 49ers, But Does It Matter?

By Josh Hill | Dec 15, 2014

Dec 14, 2014; Seattle, WA, USA; Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson (3) eludes a sack by San Francisco 49ers nose tackle Quinton Dial (92) during the second quarter at CenturyLink Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports /

The San Francisco 49ers got jobbed on one of the worst calls all season long, and the NFL has shamelessly apologized as though it changes anything.

There have been bad calls in the NFL ever since the current band of officials in the league pushed back against the replacement referees in 2012. At the time, the story was how horrible the replacement referees were and how awful their calls were, but here we sit two years later and the calls are just as bad and just as critical.

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Maybe it’s the air in Seattle or the fact that it always rains that forces officials to be proverbially drunk on the job, but whatever the cause another bad call occurred in Sunday’s game that benefitted the Seahawks. In the Seattle Screw Part II, officials ruled that Russell Wilson was roughed on a late hit that was neither roughing nor a late hit.

On NFL Network today, the league’s head of officiating Dean Blandino said it was a clean hit that shouldn’t have been penalized.

"“It’s close, but when you look at it on tape, Moody’s head is up, he hits with more the side or the facemask to the body of the quarterback. So in our review, with the ability to look at it in slow motion, it is not a foul,” Blandino said."

This is the play in question:

This does the 49ers absolutely no good at this point. They ended up losing the game — in large part thanks to that blown call — and are now out of the postseason having been eliminated by the loss, with now nothing more than a shoulder shrug from the league over one of the worst and most obviously blown calls of the season.

Of course, his evoked memories of the Seattle Screw, in which replacement referees blew a pass interference call in the end zone and awarded the Seahawks a win.

Seattle, on the other hand, need only win out and they’re the No. 1 seed in the NFC with home field advantage throughout the playoffs. This isn’t to suggest that there is a conspiracy in play here, the location of the bad calls are merely coincidental. The point here is that the NFL is still wildly inconsistent and seemingly incompetent with the way penalties are called and it’s something that is now, more than once, deciding the outcome of games.

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