NFL “apologizes” to Tampa Bay over wrong call

Rick Stroud of the St. Petersburg Times writes that the NFL has given an apology over a bad call in Tampa Bay’s 23-20 loss at the hands of the Detroit Lions. The play in question was Kellen Winslow’s offensive pass interference penalty in which he pushed off on Lions safety C.C. Brown enabling him to catch a 2-yard TD pass from Josh Freeman. Since the play was nullified, Tampa Bay had to settle for a field goal that tied the game.

Buccaneers offensive coordinator Greg Olson had this to say regarding the matter…

“They apologized,” offensive coordinator Greg Olson said. “We’ve had a number of those this year. It’s real discouraging. We’ve played some tight games, but you can’t have those kinds of mistakes. It’s disappointing, obviously. Now, it wasn’t the only play in the game, but it was a critical one at a critical time.”

NFL on FOX officiating expert Mike Pereira had this take on the play…

“The defender played into Winslow, and at that point, both were holding onto each other and no advantage was being gained one way or another,” Pereira wrote on Foxsports.com. “If anything, it almost seemed like the defender was more responsible since he initiated the contact. In plays like this, I feel it is best not to make a call at all.”

There is yet to be an official public announcement from the NFL which leads you to question what was actually said between the NFL and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This may explain Buc’s head coach Raheem Moris’ response to the apology in which he states he had no response to avoid any fine handed down by the NFL.

If the NFL did apologize to the Buccaneers it raises the question why? Both, C.C. Brown and Kellen Winslow were fighting for position with Winslow getting the final shove in. If it were the other way around and Winslow fell to the ground Brown would have more then likely been called for defensive pass interference.

This also leaves plenty of Lions fans wondering where the apology was from the NFL with the Calvin Johnson catch/no catch against Chicago. Or the multiple bad calls against Ndamukong Suh. This is especially the case for  the personal foul against Jay Cutler which replay showed clearly wasn’t a personal foul and the ensuing $15,o00 fine for it?

Again, if the apology is in fact true, was this all because Tampa Bay is fighting for a playoff spot and they just lost to the Lions or do they truly believe they messed up the call? Either way this is just another incident that the NFL dropped the ball on this season.