[LearnsFromMistakes]

Thanks for the link. I guess I was wrong.

The VP of officials said ‘The receiver can’t block down field before the ball is touched. So the timing is important’.

Maybe we should send him the pic in post 106, post 117, or the video I linked to in post 78 and see what he says about that play, where the receiver obviously starts the ‘block’ before the ball is touched. He just might have a different story.

Seriously, this is why I pretty much gave up watching the NFL years ago. It is easy to see that the ‘legal block’ was early, and because of the timing it was ‘illegal’. But the NFL wont admit it. I either had to quit making fun of pro-wrestling, or stop watching the NFL. I kinda miss watching, but when they won’t admit an obvious mistake, it says a lot about the league.

Come out and say it was a bang-bang play, but Welker should have been called for interference because he was early. Refs are human, and we know we can’t expect them to catch everything at game speeds. But the league admitting they can’t catch it on review is, well, what would you call it? Or do you still not think that Welker hit him before the ball got there?

Was the Welker ‘block’ before the receiver touched the ball? Maybe if the league had access to high-end dvr technology (like most of us have sitting around the house), they could see it like we can.

The other interesting part is the fact that the receiver had a step on the dback. A veteran pick-setter may have noticed that there was no reason to ‘block’ the dback and just let him go.

[rlmorel]

Ahh. I should post the graphic here (fully for humor, not to belittle anyone, including myself):

Most everyone here thinks Wes is a decent hard-nosed guy and had no intention to hurt someone. The hit was, if the receiver had touched the ball first, not a "dirty" one, it would have been well within the guidelines of hitting.

Orange Hoof, I could have been less snarky in my response to you. What I should have said was the wording was typical League Referee Speak, carefully parsed to never admit anything. He said something like "nearly simultaneous" to make sure he didn't have to say it was a missed call, which, heck, wasn't the point anyway.

This Pats fan will be fully rooting for the Broncos in another week and a half.

[rlmorel]

I guess to sum it up, it wasn’t technically legal from the rules governing downfield blocking or contact, but it wasn’t an illegal or even dirty hit if the timing had been right.

I think I said that right...:)