NFL confirms that pass interference review won't return
After just one season, the NFL is deciding to do away with pass interference review. During an interview on SiriusXM, NFL Chairman of the Competition Committee Rich McKay made the announcement.
"We're not gonna vote on [pass interference replay] because nobody is putting forward the OPI-DPI review again," McKay explained during the interview. "So that dies a natural death."
The pass interference review was implemented after a controversial no-call during the 2019 NFC Championship Game, which many believe cost the New Orleans Saints a trip to the Super Bowl. Many felt it was unfair that coaches weren't able to challenge whether or not offensive or defensive pass interference had been committed.
But the replay proved to be every bit as controversial and reviled, as coaches, announcers, players, and fans all expressed their displeasure with the way the replays were being enforced. Many critics felt the referees were intentionally refusing to overturn any call on the field but regardless, it proved to be more of a headache than most supporters of the replay anticipated.
When asked what went wrong with the OPI-DPI review, McKay said he felt it was too subjective of a play to involve replay.
"In my opinion, we were trying to apply something that we've always been fearful of ... which is putting a totally subjective play into replay," McKay explained. "We have plays that involve some subjectivity but the majority of replays [are] objective.
According to McKay, the league anticipated these problems, which may explain why they only had the rule implemented for one season.
"When we go into [the] subjective ... we knew there would be problems because your subjectivity and my subjectivity on a particular review of a play could easily be different," McKay said.
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