Former Tennessee Vols standout could be responsible for changing the NFL forever
Former Tennessee Vols pass rusher Byron Young, who is in his second season with the Los Angeles Rams, was at the center of a controversial play on Thursday night against the Minnesota Vikings. Late in the fourth quarter, Young sacked Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold in the end zone for a safety. The play essentially clinched […]
Former Tennessee Vols pass rusher Byron Young, who is in his second season with the Los Angeles Rams, was at the center of a controversial play on Thursday night against the Minnesota Vikings.
Late in the fourth quarter, Young sacked Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold in the end zone for a safety. The play essentially clinched the win for the Rams.
The only problem is that Young pulled Darnold down by the quarterback's facemask, but no flag was thrown despite there being an official standing directly in front of the play.
After the game, head referee Tra Blake said that officials didn't see the infraction.
"Well, on that play, the quarterback was facing the opposite direction from me so I did not have a good look at it," said Blake after the game. "I did not have a look, and I did not see the facemask being pulled, obviously. The umpire had players between him and the quarterback, so he did not get a good look at it. He was blocked out as well. So that was the thing, we did not see it so we couldn't call it. We couldn't see it."
That play isn't reviewable. But because it possibly altered the outcome of the game, there are a plenty of fans/media calling for a change to the NFL rules that allow for plays inside the final two minutes of the game to be reviewed.
A to Z Sports' Evan Winter offered a perfect solution on Friday morning.
"The NFL must find a way to keep this from happening in the future and the solution is really simple: make all calls reviewable in the final two minutes of the game," wrote Winter. "The 'eye in the sky' is already there and it can buzz refs and overturn calls within seconds. It makes too much sense to allow that process to happen, whenever needed, in the game's waning moments."
We don't know if the Vikings would've scored (and converted a two-point conversion) to tie the game if the correct call is made there. But they would've at least had a shot (there was plenty of time left on the clock to go down the field and score).
Other plays that can affect the outcome of a game — catches, turnovers, spotting the ball, out of bounds, etc — are reviewable at any point during the game. It seems like a simple solution to make certain penalties reviewable at the end of a game, too. Otherwise, situations like the one on Thursday night are going to continue to pop up from time to time.
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