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The pass interference replay review, otherwise known as the rule put in place after the refs screwed over the Saints in the 2018 NFC Championship game, is now dead.
The no-call on Los Angeles cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman against the Saints will go down as one of the worst missed calls in the history of sports and the NFL had no choice to implement the PI review rule last season.
Most fans were excited about the fact that pass interference calls wouldn’t be completely subjective with the new rule in place, but then they realized that NFL officials would just find a way to mess up the actual review process so the replay rule was great for about 14 seconds. Reviewing pass interference situations also did nothing but slow down the game, which couldn’t afford to be slowed down in the first place.
The rule was actually so ineffective during the 2019 season that no one is even bringing it up to a vote to possibly return this upcoming season, according to Competition Committee Chairman Rich McKay and Pro Football Focus.
“We’re not going to vote on, because nobody is putting forward, the OPI/DPI review again. So that dies a natural death,” McKay said.
McKay said the NFL tries to limit replay to objective questions like whether a ball touched the ground or whether a player’s foot touched a sideline, and that pass interference is fundamentally subjective.
The NFL tried something new last season, which you can’t fault them for, but that experiment failed.
Now all of the attention will be back on the officials on the field when it comes to pass interference, which will undoubtedly cause plenty of controversy throughout the season.