NFL will not suspend referees from Seahawks-Bills game for officiating errors

The NFL has decided not to suspend the officiating crew involved in the controversial no-call of Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman running into Bills kicker Dan Carpenter, according to ESPN’s Adam Caplan.

The referees drew negative attention after two incidents involving Sherman in the Monday Night Football matchup between the Seahawks and Bills, one where Sherman ran into Carpenter on a field goal attempt of the first half in an effort to block the ball, and the other on the decisive final Bills play when Sherman laid out wide receiver Walter Powell after Bills quarterback Tyrod Taylor left the pocket.

Sherman was fined for his offside hit on Carpenter on Thursday.

Bills coach Rex Ryan tore into officials after Monday night’s game, referring to their call on the blocked field goal as “ridiculous” in a postgame press conference. NFL senior vice president of officiating Dean Blandino spoke on NFL Network after the game and noted two mistakes by the officiating crew on the field goal attempt.

“It’s unnecessary roughness,” Blandino said. “Even though Sherman touched the football, we’re not looking at a roughing the kicker situation. This is a dead ball foul, a hit on the kicker. It’s similar to a false start and a defender coming across the line and hitting the quarterback unnecessarily.”

Sherman, however, maintains that he “played until the whistle was blown.”

The second mistake, according to Blandino, came from the officials’ decision to flag Buffalo for delay of game. The game clock had ticked down to under 10 seconds with the referees still holding the ball. NFL rules dictate that the play clock must be reset if officials are still handling the ball with fewer than 20 seconds left on it.

“If there was that little time left, then that’s probably a mistake on my part in terms of not pumping the play clock back up,” referee Walt Anderson admitted after the game.

The NFL has a history of reacting to negative reception of officiating crews by reassigning or suspending them. After a particularly rough performance by officials in last season’s Week 12 matchup between the Cardinals and 49ers, one that drew the ire of both teams, the NFL reassigned that week’s crew for the following week, taking them off the Sunday Night Football matchup and relegating them to an earlier game.

It also happened last season after an errant clock runoff in a Week 5 matchup between the Chargers and Steelers.

Anderson’s officiating crew was fortunate to not have faced any discipline.