LAST WORD (FOR NOW) ON THE “ILLEGAL FORWARD PASS” CALL

Given the number of comments and e-mails generated by our item from last night regarding referee Alberto Riveron’s curious decision to flag Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers for an “illegal forward pass” that resulted in a safety, we need to clarify a couple of things. Our theory on this is that Riveron initially wanted to rule that Rodgers had committed intentional grounding, but that Riveron’s crew persuaded him that the Favre-style desperation underhand throw wasn’t intentional grounding, most likely because a receiver was in the general vicinity of the ball. (The official rules also permit a quarterback who’s outside the pocket to throw the ball to an area away from any receiver, as long as the ball lands “near or beyond” the line of scrimmage. And contrary to what folks might be finding elsewhere via Google, the official rules use the term “near or beyond” when describing what a quarterback who’s outside the pocket must do to avoid intentional grounding.) And so, because Riveron likely was troubled by the notion that a quarterback could make an ungainly, stumbling heave in order to avoid a safety, we believe that Riveron decided to find a way to award the safety by calling the thing an illegal forward pass. But it simply wasn’t an “illegal forward pass.” It was a legal and appropriate pass. If it had been caught, no flag would have been thrown. The question is whether it was intentional grounding; since Riveron didn’t call it intentional grounding, we can only assume that he and his crew decided that it wasn’t. And since in 35-plus years of watching pro and college football games we’ve never heard “intentional grounding” described as an “illegal forward pass,” we’re convinced that Riveron was bending the rules on the fly to fit the outcome that he believed was appropriate. In our view, Riveron focused more on the ugly initiation of the pass than on where it landed. Watch the video. The ball lands in the vicinity of a Packers receiver, and it was potentially catchable. It was far more catchable (or, more accurately, far less uncatchable) than the ball that Giants quarterback Eli Manning spiked to the ground a yard or so from the feet of tight end Kevin Boss last night. That maneuver didn’t draw a flag, and the absence of a penalty for intentional grounding prompted loud boos from the Philly faithful. (Amazingly, the usually rock-solid duo of Al Michaels and John Madden said nothing about the non-call, or the crowd’s reaction to it.) Bottom line? As one commenter has pointed out, Riveron tried to base the call on Rodgers’ intent. In so doing, Riveron ignored the rules. For a first-year referee who surely hopes to stick around much longer than that, this was worse that simply blowing a call. Riveron placed his own beliefs above the plain terms of the rule book. And while the NFL will rally around Riveron’s post-game attempt to equate an illegal forward pass with intentional grounding in order to avoid drawing further attention to the mistakes that officials have made this season, we hope that the powers-that-be explain to Riveron in no uncertain terms that a big part of exercising judgment is realizing when not to do so.