Dallas Cowboys WR Dez Bryant explains dash onto field

During the Phantom Flag Game Sunday, Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant ran onto the field to argue a pass interference call.

Dez Bryant wants everyone to know the officials weren’t listening to him Sunday when he ran onto the field to argue a pass interference call against Dallas Cowboys linebacker Anthony Hitchens—a flag that was controversially picked up after the penalty had been announced.

“The ref really wasn’t listening to what I was saying,” Bryant told ESPN Dallas. “I gave him my opinion. I thought it was a bad call. He was blocking me out and telling me to get back [to the sidelines] and the coaches, they were grabbing me. Since the play was dead, I thought it was OK.”

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Many believed Bryant should have been flagged under the NFL’s rules about removing the helmet while on the field. Bryant did not have his helmet on when he made his mad dash.

But NFL head of officials Dean Blandino explained on NBC Sports Radio Monday that the rule wasn’t applicable since Bryant wasn’t on the field and hadn’t removed his helmet while on the field.

Blandino said that an unsportsmanlike conduct foul could have been called, but that was “a judgment call that could have gone either way.”

What Blandino did say was what everyone else already knew—if the “all-star” officiating crew had talked to each other before referee Pete Morelli announced the call, the controversy would have been much, much less.

Blandino also said that he saw a defensive holding—a clear “jersey grab” by Hitchens against Detroit Lions tight end Brandon Pettigew—that “should have been called.”

While many have been espousing a wide variety of conspiracy theories over the play since it happened Sunday evening, I can’t jump on that particular bandwagon.

For starters, I can’t believe commissioner Roger Goodell would be enough of a moron to throw game-fixing onto the list of things for which he is already under heavy scrutiny. I don’t believe there was a Tim Donaghy type on the field manipulating outcomes for gamblers—particularly since Dallas didn’t cover the spread and the call/non-call decision was decidedly pro-Dallas.

What there was, however, was rampant incompetence. The back judge on the play called a face-guarding penalty that doesn’t exist in the NFL. The side judge didn’t call a clear holding penalty that occurred.

The referee announced the penalty without talking to either of them first, adding to the confusion and lighting the fuse for the conspiracy theorists.

The NFL goes 10 deep into its roster at each officiating position for the playoffs—each of the 10 officials chosen gets one game.

They take the top 59 percent at each officiating spot and mix-and-match them for the playoffs.

What could possibly go wrong with having bad officials paired with other bad officials that they’ve never worked with before?

Think about this from a mathematical standpoint for a second. There are 17 back judges and 17 side judges. That means whichever of those officials was rated ninth at his position is the middle of the pack, Mr. Mediocre.

The NFL rotates playoff assignments between the top 10 at each position, meaning that the guy in that 10th spot is considered by the people doing the grading as below average.

Is this the guy we want on the field in a playoff game?

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