Fuck you, Brady. Incidental contact.

[madinmaryland]

[King_Klonopin]

1. Incidental? He was waltzing with Gronkowski. Back Judge was a coward.

Even Gruden thought so, and he has no love loss with Pats.

[Upton]

2. Another example of today's NFL..

hugs are okay, hits...not so much.

[Berlum]

3. "No interference on The Gronk" - Just some NFL "Man Love"

What a horseshit call.

[Capt. Obvious]

4. LOL

[Iggo]

5. Yes.

Uncatchable (by the TE), no pass interference.

Coulda called a contact-beyond-five-yards penalty, I suppose, but they didn't.

The call was pass interference. They got together and decided (correctly) that it wasn't pass interference.

That's all, folks!

Suck it, Cheatriots!

[trumad]

6. One of the worse calls I've ever seen.

I'm not a Pat fan by any means... but this was pure bad.

[joeybee12]

7. ONly a blind person would agree...

How about those Dodgers!

[Berlum]

8. I call this a RepubliTude (R)

...the kind of attitude & 'reasoning' that makes Republicons Republicons.

[trotsky]

9. A KSK commenter said it best:

The fan base is amazing, they don’t just complain, they act like it’s their right that every call go in their favor, and those that don’t, well they best be reviewed by a panel of referees, a couple of the original Apostles, and Vince Lombardi’s ghost.

What about the uncalled (and career-threatening) legwhip by the Cheatriot offensive lineman?

[Auggie]

10. Not to call it is one thing, but to flag it ...

and then change your mind?

Mickey Mouse officiating

[bluedigger]

11. Should have been defensive holding.

Pats should have had one more play from the 13 after the five yard penalty.

http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/83034/the-panthers-not-the-refs-beat-new-england

There'll be other games.

[Iggo]

12. Yep.

[trotsky]

13. For any Pats fans still depressed about the way the game ended...

Luke Kuechly is offering free hugs.

[Berlum]

14. What's depressing is the Republicon Family Values expressed by the refs

Last edited Thu Nov 21, 2013, 07:02 AM - Edit history (1)

Jeez - if they -- and their supporters -- are going to act like Republicons, then they should have little made-in-china flag pins on their lapels, so players and fans will be able to recognize how screwed up they are.

[trotsky]

15. They can't help it - their minds were controlled by chemtrails!!

[Berlum]

16. Yikes. Thanks for explaining.

[hughee99]

17. Of the refs, players, commentators, fans, you're the ONLY one I've seen call it

incidental contact, so congrats on being original.

People can argue over whether it should have been called pass interference, holding, face-guarding or not been called at all, or whether Gronk COULD have had a shot at catching it or not, but there's at least one thing almost every agrees on...

Does anyone disagree that after 60 minutes of football to have it come down to a final play, where a flag is thrown in the endzone, then picked up, and the players and fans are told "There's no flag on the play, the game is over", is completely unacceptable? THAT is the sort of shit one expects from the replacement refs, not from these professionals.

In the world series, the umpires don't even have microphones and explained the Craig/Middlebrooks obstruction call with a series of hand gestures better than the NFL refs handled this on the field.

[trotsky]

18. Actually the flag was picked up after the refs consulted each other.

That's what should happen - if one ref sees something and wants to call a penalty, he should check with others (who saw the play from a different angle) to confirm.

[hughee99]

19. Yes, the refs consulted for about 10 seconds, picked up the flag,

told everyone the game is over and walked off the field. Many people saw what happened on TV, and they saw what would normally be called a penalty. The fact that a flag was thrown backs that up. The fact that the flag was picked up because of a judgment call that the receiver couldn't have caught the ball (so the contact everyone saw is irrelevant) SHOULD have been communicated to the teams and the fans at that time rather than to a pool reporter 30 minutes after the game ended.

My friend was at the game and he didn't know what the hell happened until he got out of the stadium and into his car to drive home. I'm not even taking issue with the call here, or how it was made, but how can you NOT communicate that information to everyone at the end of the game? There was a lot of speculation for a good while as to WHY the flag had been picked up, but no one seemed to know for sure for quite some time.

I'm not a soccer fan, but it sort of reminded me at the time of the world cup games where the ref disallows the goal and gives NO explanation as to why it wasn't allowed. At least here we were eventually able to find out what the call was, as opposed to some of those WC games since it seems to be FIFA's policy to not allow the referees to discuss it publicly.

[trotsky]

20. So you agree that the (non-)call was correct?

You just wish the explanation had been given right away?

Need to figure out what it is you're objecting to, other than the fact that your team lost.

[hughee99]

21. I don't agree with the call, but I can understand why someone else would have seen

it differently. I think that's a matter for debate (as judgement calls usually are). What I can't understand is why the call wasn't made clear at the time. The OP appears to be about Brady hassling the refs after the game. Why SHOULDN'T he want to know what the hell happened? Everyone else wanted to know too. Hell, even the OP was wrong in his guess about what the call was.

[trotsky]

22. I don't agree with the missed call where the Pats' O-Lineman leg-whipped the Carolina defender.

And I'm not even a Carolina fan.

Seemed pretty obvious to me why the flag was picked up - even if there had been NO defenders between Gronk and the ball, there's no way he catches it. He's backpedaling out of the endzone, and the ball barely made it 3 yards into it.

You should be more upset with your team's mistakes that put them in the situation of losing the game on what you think was a bad call.

(BTW, the drive on which that leg-whip that wasn't called led to a Pats TD.)

[hughee99]

23. The leg whip was another bad call. Who said I wasn't more upset with my team's mistakes?

As for being a Carolina fan, I never thought you were. Given the number of Pats related threads you post on, though, I'd certainly say you had a "dog in this fight". Still, that's not really relevant as to whether he could or couldn't have made a play on the ball.

As far as how far the ball made it into the endzone, it made it about 3 or 4 yards in to the endzone and was intercepted roughly chest high at that point by the defender. That's not the same thing as "barely making it 3 yards into the endzone" where it would have been AT BEST, at that defender's feet. If the ball hadn't been picked, I'm absolutely sure he'd have a chance to come back and catch it. If the ball hadn't been picked, I doubt they would have picked up the flag. I'm not so sure he would have been able to come back far enough to prevent the pick, though.

In any case, it's a judgment call and people are going to disagree on it.