According to a prediction made by Adam Schefter of ESPN on Sunday, Referee Brad Allen and his crew will be demoted in their positions, at least for the postseason. This decision was taken after the Detroit Lions lost the game against Dallas due to a poor call made by Referee Allen.
As a result, the fact that Allen and his crew will be officiating a high-profile game the following Saturday, which is the final weekend of the regular season, may come as a surprise to some people.
It is possible that some people will interpret this as a sign that the league is eventually supporting Allen and his team and will refrain from taking severe measures.
During the Sunday, Schefter stated:
“During the postseason, there will be a variety of different crews. There will be a significant portion of Brad Allen’s crew that will not be participating in the postseason as officials. You are going to be demoted, and there is a good probability that many of them will not be able to participate in the postseason. This is due to the fact that the league is dealing with a significant problem in this area, which is a controversy about the officiating procedures.
At the heart of the debate is the fact that Jared Goff threw a completion to left tackle Taylor Decker, which resulted in a two-point convert and awarded the Lions a 21-20 lead over Dallas with a few seconds remaining in the game. This was followed by a flag that declared Decker ineligible due to the fact that he had not properly reported himself as eligible. The Lions were defeated 18-19.
There was a consensus among Decker, Coach Dan Campbell, and other Lions that Decker had indeed informed the referee. After the game, Ref Allen reiterated that Decker never reports anything negative.
“No matter who’s right and who’s wrong it’s Sunday morning of Week 17 and we’re talking about whether the officials got a call right that threatens to impact the entire playoff picture,” Schefter told reporters on Sunday. “It’s really absurd. In addition, there have been far too many examples of this happening this year, and a great number of teams are upset about it.
“Now we have a scenario that has the real possibility of totally rearranging the NFC playoff picture because if the Detroit Lions, now who are basically locked into the three seed, win in the opening round, their second round game is probably going to be at an NFC East team as opposed to hosting the game, not only that but next week the Lions are probably locked into number… For all intents and purposes, the NFC playoff picture has been entirely transformed by a single call.
