NFL news: League will not bring back pass interference reviews for 2020
By Brian Miller
Heading into the 2019 season, the NFL and the competition committee adopted a one-year rule allowing teams to challenge pass interference.
The NFL has watched that one season of pass interference reviews go and now, they are content to let it stay buried. According to reports, the NFL is not bringing the PI review rule to a vote but instead, allowing it to simply go away.
Frankly, no one really liked the rule. It wasn’t clear on what PI would really be. While some teams found it helpful, others found it downright annoying considering that they couldn’t get a clear definition on what would constitute a reversal. The league can’t get it clear what a catch is how could they determine what PI was?
Of course, this now will allow the Patriots to go back to the illegal pick plays that have been a staple of their offense under Bill Belichick. Last year, it wasn’t as bad and they did get red challenge flags thrown against them, and were flagged. Now they won’t have that eye in the sky watching over them.
The biggest rules-related decision by NFL owners this offseason already has been made. The league and competition committee opted to allow the rule making pass interference reviewable by instant replay to expire after one season, without a vote by the owners expected.
— MarkMaske (@MarkMaske) April 30, 2020
In reality, there has to be some human error in football. It sucks but the fact is the league can’t get out of their own way when they are trying to determine what is considered a foul and what isn’t. Hell, half the time they don’t know what a hold is let alone a pass interference call.
At least one thing will be certain, the speed of the game will be a little bit faster, not much but a little. PI challenges took too long because there was no clear definitions in place. Now, it won’t matter anymore.