NFL will consider making pass interference calls reviewable

Missed call in Rams-Saints game prompts league to give consideration this offseason to making pass interference calls subject to instant replay review.

The officiating debacle acknowledged by the NFL at the end of Sunday's NFC title game in New Orleans, which prompted widespread criticism from fans, players and coaches over what many deemed an outcome-changing call, could lead to a significant rule change. The league and its rulemaking competition committee plan to give consideration this offseason to making pass interference calls subject to instant replay review.

"It will be discussed at length along with additional fouls that coaches feel should be subject to review," one person familiar with the league's inner workings said Monday, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing public furor over the botched call in New Orleans.

A high-ranking official with one NFL team confirmed that making pass interference reviewable will be considered, adding: "And there will be discussion on (replay) review of calls and non-calls."

Any change would have to be approved by at least three-quarters of the 32 owners. The competition committee always has been staunchly opposed in the past to making judgment calls such as pass interference reviewable by replay.

But the outcome Sunday in New Orleans, which sent the Los Angeles Rams to the Super Bowl, might be enough to change some minds. It represented one of the NFL's worst officiating nightmares, with a Super Bowl berth being determined in part by a blatantly missed call, as conceded by the league. An obvious pass interference penalty against the Rams went uncalled late in regulation and they beat the Saints in overtime.

So the Rams, not the Saints, will meet the New England Patriots on Feb. 3 in Atlanta. And the NFL must deal with the fallout from one of the most glaring officiating blunders in its history.

The non-call was not reviewable. Al Riveron, the NFL's senior vice president of officiating, told Saints Coach Sean Payton afterward that pass interference should have been called.

"They blew the call," Payton, a member of the competition committee, said after the game. "It's a game-changing call ... a tough one to swallow. ... How two guys can look at that and come up with their decision -- we'll probably never get over it. The truth is -- some of these losses -- one like that -- it's too bad."

The replay system is designed specifically to avoid having the outcome of a game determined by an obviously erroneous officiating decision. In this case, it was even worse for the NFL. It was a Super Bowl spot that was determined.