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NFL referee Alex Moore
Last week’s game between the Packers and the Lions was marred by very questionable flags thrown by the officiating crew assigned to it. That group was slated to work this week’s installment of Sunday Night Football, but it’s been reassigned to work a matchup that won’t air in the vast majority of television markets in the United States.
The rise of technology has helped address many of the shortcomings that come with relying on humans to enforce the rules during sporting events, but we are still consistently reminded of the incredibly fallible nature of those adjudicators on an all-too-frequent basis.
That’s certainly the case in the NFL, as it’s rare for a single week of action to unfold without spawning at least one call that ends up at the center of controversy.
We were treated to a few last Sunday due to what transpired when the Packers and the Lions faced off on October 25th, as Detroit earned a 20-17 victory thanks in no small part to some very iffy flags thrown by an officiating crew led by referee Alex Moore.
That includes two counts of roughing the passer involving plays where Jared Goff did not seem to be the victim of any illegal contact, as well as an unnecessary roughness call on Green Bay’s Devonte Wyatt, who was flagged for the crime of continuing to defend until a whistle was blown.
The refs in Packers-Lions need to be investigated:
– Whistle never blows, Amon-Ra St. Brown kicks a ref in the gut during tackle, Packers get flagged
– Multiple horrible roughing the passer calls
– “Intentional grounding” on Jordan Love
– Brian Branch launching himself headfirst into Tucker Kraft’s head— GhettoGronk (@ghetto_gronk) October 26, 2026
It was egregious to the point where Tom Brady violated the rule that bans him from criticizing the officiating while covering games for Fox, and Xavier McKinney was hit with a significant fine for voicing his displeasure after the contest.
Moore’s crew was supposed to work this week’s game between the Eagles and the Commanders in primetime, but that won’t be the case after the NFL appeared to attempt to do some damage control.
The officiating crew that caught heat over calls in the Packers-Lions game was reassigned to a game that will only air in New England and Miami
The NFL has historically done what it can to assign its top-performing officiating crews to its most high-profile games, and it’s not rare for the league to dole out discipline by exiling ones that managed to spark some controversy to showdowns that aren’t surrounded by a ton of hype.
I’d argue this week’s Sunday Night Football game between the Eagles and the Commanders falls under that second umbrella, as it features a Philadelphia squad that’s sitting at 2-5 going up against a Washington team that heads into the matchup with a 1-4-1 record.
However, it’s still the only game in the time slot, and while Moore’s crew was scheduled to oversee the proceedings, Football Zebras reports it will instead be worked by Shawn Hochuli and Co.
UPDATE: Alex Moore’s crew has been switched out of SNF and will officiate Patriots-Dolphins instead. Shawn Hochuli’s crew has been moved to cover the primetime game in Washington. Officiating sources say the switch is more about optics rather than a disciplinary action https://t.co/I5a7vvy4Ls
— Fᴏᴏᴛʙᴀʟʟ Zᴇʙʀᴀs (@footballzebras) October 29, 2026
The decision is being positioned as one that focuses on “optics” as opposed to “disciplinary action,” as it seems like the league wants to minimize the risk of last week’s issues being amplified on a national broadcast.
However, it’s hard to ignore what Moore’s team has been reassigned to. They’ll be working the game between the 4-3 Patriots and the 1-5 Dolphins, which will only be shown in the primary markets of those two teams in the 4:25 PM slot after CBS decided to prioritize the Chiefs-Broncos game in the rest of the country.
Pretty much just New England and South Florida households will get Patriots-Dolphins at 4:25 on Sunday. https://t.co/AGWRsta9Uj
— Chad Graff (@ChadGraff) October 28, 2026
Here’s to hoping they manage to improve on their performance.