The replacement official who made the controversial decision to award Golden Tate a touchdown in the Packers-Seahawks game said on Showtime's Inside The NFL that Packers coach Mike McCarthy was one of those who reached out to him following his call, which came days before the referee lockout ended.
Replacement ref from Packers-Seahawks game: ‘I’d probably call interception’
Oops! The replacement ref who worked the now infamous Packers-Seahawks game said he may have made a mistake.
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“He called me at my house last week because he had heard I was having a rough week with all the calls and everything... He wanted me to know he thought that what I did, controversial and maybe he didn’t agree with it, that I handled it with class.”
Elliott also said that, if he had to do it over again, he probably would’ve called an interception on the play. Watch the controversial call here.
What’s interesting is that a day after that game, while the ref lockout was still on, the NFL released a statement confirming Elliott’s call on the field, but said pass interference should have been called on Tate.
But Elliott said of pass interference, “it was brought up that you don’t really call interference on a Hail Mary... The deep officials were trained that during a Hail Mary, there’s a lot of bodies in there and you just let it go.”
The call has been made and it will not be reversed but that’s a tidbit NFL players should keep in mind if they’re ever involved in another Hail Mary.
Elliott and another replacement referee, Jim Core, spoke with Showtime’s Inside The NFL about their experience as a replacement referee, as well as the aftermath of the call in the Packers-Seahawks game.
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