NFL's New Pass Interference Replay Rule Could Have One Key Exemption
By Michael Luciano
As the NFL is moving towards making pass interference calls reviewable in order to prevent a repeat of the Rams-Saints debacle in the NFL Championship, one of the major obstacles to the new rule will be related to how Hail Mary throws will be policed given all the pushing and shoving that goes down on any given play.
In order to skirt around this loophole, the NFL will officially define what a Hail Mary is to include those plays within the scope of the PI rule.
And if NFL changes PI challenge rule, one issue is how they exempt Hail Marys from challenge -- league does not want every Hail Mary challenged. Members of committee indicated they will likely have to define what a Hail Mary is and include that in the rule.
— Judy Battista (@judybattista) May 22, 2019
Yeah, that won't be problematic. Just throw in more confusing rules on top of what is sure to be a controversial rule. I'm sure that will smooth things out.
Can't wait to read the technical definition of a Hail Mary. The NFL is non stop fun for sure...
— Brendan Kenny (@brndnknny) May 21, 2019
The league did admit, however, that Hail Marys will be exempt from the new replay rule.
If NFL adjusts PI replay rule to make it coach challengable during last 2 mins, Hail Marys at end of game would be exempt, Rich McKay said. NFL will have to write definition of Hail Mary.
— Judy Battista (@judybattista) May 21, 2019
You'd think that after the catch/not a catch fiasco a few years ago that the NFL would have learned that less rules overlapping on top of each other is better. Apparently, they haven't totally figured that out yet.