ESPN
The NFL decided to have one of their execs defend their refs and refute ESPN’s rules analyst on Monday Night Football.
Early in the Monday Night Football game between the Lions and the Raiders, Jared Goff appeared to commit intentional grounding when he threw the ball away near running back Jahmyr Gibbs, who appeared to be blocking a defender and wasn’t paying attention to Goff’s pass.
ESPN rules analyst John Parry believed there should have been a flag on the play.
“He remains in the pocket, and there is no player in the vicinity.”
Refs already miss an intentional grounding on the Lions.. #LVvsDET pic.twitter.com/IcbYsGpoOi
— Rate the Refs App (@Rate_the_Refs) October 31, 2023
After a commercial break, NFL senior V.P. of officiating Walt Anderson joined the broadcast to defend the refs’ ruling on the field.
“The intentional grounding rules allow for a lot of flexibility for the quarterback to get rid of the ballas long as he’s doing so in the direction and the vicinity, the quarterback threw the ball over the head of #26…we feel like this is both in the direction and vicinity and was properly not called a foul.”
Here's your intentional grounding rule explained live with #Raiders vs #Lions pic.twitter.com/9Tpd5RVhik
— Tanner Phifer (@TannerPhiferNFL) October 31, 2023
According to Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio, this is the first time the NFL has had an exec put up on a live broadcast to defend a ref’s ruling.