Referee Brad Allen disputes that he or anyone on his crew admitted they missed a facemask penalty on Seahawks receiver Paul Richardson during his spectacular touchdown catch in Saturday night’s wild-card game in Seattle.
NBC’s Michele Tafoya reported during the broadcast that Detroit coach Jim Caldwell said a member of the officiating crew told him “they got it wrong” by not throwing a flag on Richardson for grabbing safety Tavon Wilson’s facemask as he made the catch. Wilson drew a flag for defensive pass interference on the play.
"I did not tell Coach Caldwell that,” Allen told a pool reporter (via Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio, a colleague of Tafoya’s at NBC). “I’m not aware that any on-field game official told Coach Caldwell that.”
Allen continued, “First of all, that’s not my coverage, because my responsibility obviously is in the backfield with the quarterback. There were covering officials there who did not rule that there was a facemask on the play. They did rule defensive pass interference, but every play is subject to review by the league.”
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Allen’s explanation falls short of satisfactory. As PFT points out, facemask penalties are not among those reviewable during a game; they can be reviewed later at the league office.
Plus, whether or not someone made an admission to Caldwell, Richardson clearly committed a facemask violation. Really, as NBC’s broadcasting team of Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth pointed out, offsetting penalties should have been called — one on Richardson and the one that was called on Wilson — and the down should have been replayed.