Rich McKay acknowledges “angst” with pass interference rule

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Expanded replay for pass interference was supposed to fix a problem. But while trying to right the wrong from the NFC Championship Game last January, the NFL arguably made things worse not better.

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Sunday offered another week, another controversy. Or two. Or three.

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Al Riveron, the NFL’s officiating supervisor, dropped a flag against the Dolphins after an automatic booth review late in the fourth quarter that allowed the Jets to kick the game-winning field goal. Among other questionable pass interference decisions in Week 14, the Saints wanted a penalty against the 49ers that didn’t get called.

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Nearly every team has “felt the angst” this season, said Rich McKay, the chairman of the Competition Committee.

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The rule expanding replay to include pass interference was approved for only a one-year trial basis. McKay, the president and CEO of the Falcons, said the Competition Committee will scrutinize every pass interference review in the offseason to determine how it worked . . . or how it didn’t work.

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“It will definitely be a point of discussion from everybody’s perspective,” McKay said. “I think from the committee’s standpoint, what we typically do is we’ll go back and we’ll look at every single review and we will look at it from the standpoint as a committee: ‘Would we have reversed that? Would we not have reversed that?’ After you do that, which is what we did last year with use of helmet. I think we looked at 120 use of helmet plays. You get a good sense of, ‘Can we do this better? Does this have a path to get better and more efficient and more effective and more predictable? And what are the challenges?’ I thought we left last year [feeling] like we could initiate a review. We felt like we could teach it to the coaches, the players and that there would be adjustments and there have been. So let’s wait and see.

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“There’s no question there’s been angst. I’ve felt the angst. I felt the angst with our team. Feel the angst of others. But it’s a new rule. It’s a big change. It’s something we haven’t done before. So I don’t want to prejudge what the outcome could be.”

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