Subscribe
Follow Us
There was a lot of wild action that took place in Week 17, but easily the most controversial moment of them all took place on the Detroit Lions successful two-point conversion late against the Dallas Cowboys that was overturned after Taylor Decker was ruled to have not reported himself as an eligible receiver. The big call has drawn a lot of attention, but it doesn't sound like the NFL is all that concerned.
The shortened version of the situation is that the Lions tried to fake the Cowboys out by having Decker actually report as eligible, and another one of their offensive lineman in Dan Skipper fake reporting as eligible. The problem was that the referees were fooled by the play as well, and as a result, the NFL doesn't seem to believe that changes to the player reporting process will be necessary over the upcoming offseason.
Per a source with knowledge of the situation, the NFL does not plan to change the procedure for players reporting as eligible. The league views the situation as an effort by the Lions to engage in deception and gamesmanship that backfired. https://t.co/BCWfXb1Ix8
— Clarence Hill Jr (@clarencehilljr) January 1, 2024
All eyes were on the NFL to see how they would respond to this major missed call, so it's somewhat interesting to see that their first reaction was to address the player reporting process. This isn't the first time a team has had issues with this process, as the New England Patriots used a trick of their own to confuse the Baltimore Ravens back in 2014 that resulted in owners immediately banning teams from ever being able to do it again.
This time around, though, it doesn't seem like the league is concerned that a team has found a flaw that needs to be fixed. Rather, they believe the Lions tried to get too cute with their attempt to win a game, and it came back to bite them. While the refs should have made a better call, when you play with fire, sometimes you get burnt, and the league doesn't appear to have much pity for Detroit unfortunately.
