Troy Vincent: We ‘Failed Miserably’ On Pass Interference Rule

The last thing NFL fans should talk about is the officiating, so says executive vice president Troy Vincent.

Troy Vincent was referring to last year’s new pass interference rule, regarding which he says the league ‘failed miserably’. 

Last year, the NFL allowed coaches to challenge pass interference flags and missed calls by officials. The rule was passed in response to a controversial missed call that cost the Saints the 2018 NFC Championship game.

However, it proved difficult to put into practice. Of the 81 coaches challenges, officials only overturned 13 of the pass interference plays. It only lead to further controversy which, regrettably for Troy Vincent, played out in public.

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“We saw, a year ago, when [the pass interference rule] played out, starting with myself, what we put in place last year … Those outcomes were not good for professional football,” he said.

“Because we didn’t do the proper due diligence, it played out publicly. The last thing people should be talking about is the way the game is officiated. They [officials] should be faceless objects, managing and facilitating game flow.

“We failed. I’m first in line. I shared that [with league officials]. I failed as the leader of that department, I failed. We cannot allow that to happen again. What did we learn from that? We’ve got to do our due diligence. You can’t rush and just shove something in there without knowing all the consequences. And we found that out last year, live and in action, publicly.”

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“We cannot fail this year.

“We didn’t do [our due diligence] last year, and we failed, and we failed miserably,” he added.

The NFL owners will vote on the ‘sky judge’ proposal on Thursday. Judging by Vincent’s comments, they will not rush into a big rule change again.