In what has become an annual ritual (see last year’s NFC championship game, among others), the NFL’s V.P. of Officiating admitted that the refs stole a TD from the Vikings in the Packer game. See below. Favre’s teams continuously have the league admit this. Not only last year’s NFC title game, but they once admitted they took 2 TD passes from Favre’s Packers in one game, as well as other instances. Taking away this touchdown affected the flow and momentum of the game, cost the Vikings the victory, and put Favre in situations where he felt he had to make plays, thus leading to interceptions. All Favre can do is lead his team to touchdowns–it’s up to the refs to let them stand when they should.
I realize the refs also gave the Packers a TD where the replay clearly shows it shouldn’t have been a TD, but I didn’t say anything about this, because the refs also stole a TD from the Packers at the end of the half, so these two plays offset.
What his coaches do to him is bad enough, but if Favre at least had the refs calling games fairly, his critics would have far less to talk about. Taking away touchdowns dramatically impacts outcomes of games.
Carl Johnson, the NFL’s vice president of officiating, appeared Wednesday on NFL Network’s “NFL Total Access” to clear up any confusion over the controversial calls in last Sunday’s games. Johnson also addressed a replay reversal of Vikings tight end Visanthe Shiancoe‘s apparent touchdown catch in Sunday night’s 28-24 loss to the Packers.
Shiancoe made a diving grab in the end zone and appeared to secure the ball as he rolled onto his back. Officials ruled it a touchdown but, upon review, overturned the call. The Vikings had to settle for a field goal.
Vikings coach Brad Childress was furious about the reversal and revealed Monday that Johnson had apologized to him about the missed call. But that conversation was supposed to be confidential, so the NFL fined Childress $35,000 on Tuesday.
Johnson publicly expressed his disappointment about the call Wednesday, saying: “We wish the ruling on the field would have stood as a completed catch.”
Johnson said the referee believed “there was movement, there was some loss of control,” but the league disagreed.
“As we further assessed the play, we saw that there was not enough to change this call,” he said.
By the way, in the postgame news conference, Childress said “50 drunks in a bar” would have made the correct call on Shiancoe’s catch.