For those who have somehow escaped in informed of the the firestorm of fan anger that has ensued since the conclusion of that game, the New England Patriots, winners of 3 of their last 4 games fond themselves trailing 24 to 20 with 3 seconds left on the clock and the ball at the Panthers 18 yard line. With the game coming down to 1 final play the objective for Tom Brady and his New England Patriots was simple: move the ball 18 yards and therefore, win the game.
They set up in hail mary position lining Aaron Dobson up to the left of Brady and Rob Gronkowski, Danny Amendola and Julian Edelman to his right. Brady stood roughly 6 yards back from his center and upon the inaudible stomp of his foot, the Patriots pass catchers pealed out from the line of scrimmage and made moves engineered to deceive and simply out run the Panthers defense which prior to the play had lined up 5 various players all positioned in various safety like points between the 10 and 1 yard lines.
As the play rapidly developed and the clock officially ran out, the ball thrown cleanly out of the hands of Tom Brady soared midway through the end-zone obviously on a preferred route straight to the outstretched hands of tight end Rob Gronkowski. However as the pass enters the vicinity of the end-zone Gronk noticed that the ball was slightly under thrown. He immediately slammed his right foot hard into the ground and made what seemed like a successful attempt to get back into a position that would end with him hauling in the pass. But in the eyes of defender Luke Kechley that was not a desired outcome and so he launched himself forward and proceeded to push Gronkowski back out of the preferred receiving real estate.
This is defensive pass interference.
The flag was immediately thrown but frankly what Patriots fans are busy screaming about this week is what happened next. As Tom Brady clapped his hands an proceeded to march up to the 1 yard line (where the penalty would have put the ball) the 3 referees quickly congregated and proceeded to pick up the flag that had been thrown. "The game is over," the lead referee said free of emotion and so the mayhem began. Brady sprinted to the referee's side and from what was heard over the ESPN broadcast of the game uttered some choice words directed at the official all while Patriots fans across the globe sat confused as to how the call could be reversed.
The man who threw the flag was just feet from where the would be penalty occurred while those who came in to reverse it were at the very least 10 yards away. Furthermore, the reason put forth as an explanation for the result of the play was that the ball was "uncatachable".
Now frankly, none of us have ever heard that word before and as you look into the NFL rule book, none of us have read it either. In perhaps the most relevant of 6 situations in which defensive pass interference is called the NFL rulebook states that such a penalty will be called when a defender is seen "cutting off the path of a receiver by making contact with him without playing the ball."
Such was the case last night, Luke Kechley wrapped Gronkowski in a tight bear hug and while by the end of the play he was far out of the passing lane, when Kechley first made contact with Gronk, both players as well as the Panthers defender who would eventually make the open interception all sat converged at the very center of the end-zone. To that point Gronkowski had stopped running forward and as I cannot fixate on enough, it is the foot work that shows that without Kechley there, the final of Monday's game would have been very different.
In the past few months, it seemed that Boston sports teams have got the short end of the stick. Furthermore, between the called obstruction play in the World Series and the not called interference play on Monday, it seems that referees are not really sure on well anything to do with physical contact between Boston athletes and their opponents.
To see the play one more time click here
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