Mike Pereira, the NFL's vice president of officiating, discussed several of the calls or non-calls from the Vikings' overtime loss to New Orleans on Sundayin the NFC title game.
Pereira, appearing on his weekly segment on the NFLNetwork's "Total Access," show Wednesdayand later in a portion that is aired only on NFL.com , admitted a penalty should have been called by referee Pete Morelli's crew on the high-low hit thatquarterbackBrett Favre took in the third quarter. That would have wiped out a Favre interception.
Pereira also hit on Devery Henderson's catch in overtime that was upheldon reviewdespite the fact theball appeared tohit the ground (the question there was possession) and thefourth-downrun and jump by Saints running back Pierre Thomasthatwas reviewed and ended up with the first-down ruling being upheld.
But one play Pereira did not discuss was the pass interference call on Vikings linebacker Ben Leber that moved the ball to the Vikings 29-yard line in overtime and got the Saints in position to kick the winning field goal. Leber was still upset about the call on Monday in large part because the pass for tight end David Thomas did not appear to be catchable.
Asked about the fact Pereira did not discuss that call in his NFL Network segment,league spokesman Greg Aiello said in an e-mail this morning that the league clearly supported the judgement call of the official. Wrote Aiello: "If the defender steps on the foot of a receiver while not playing the ball, the rule is that it is pass interference. Tangled feet with the defensive player not playing the ball is a foul by rule."
OK, the next thing you are going to point out is the ball did not appear to be catchable. That, however, isa judgment call and the official in this case judged it to be catchable. So let the debate continue.