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Before joining our Access Vikings team, Dan Wiederer covered Atlantic Coast Conference basketball for the Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer and was named North Carolina's top sports columnist in 2010. His previous reporting experience includes covering the Chicago Bears. Follow him on Twitter @StribDW.
Mark Craig has covered football and the NFL the past 20 years, including the Browns from 1991-95 and the Vikings and the NFL since 2003. Since 2008, Craig has served as one of the 44 Pro Football Hall of Fame selectors. He can be followed on Twitter at @markcraignfl.
What about the Leber call?
Posted by: under Vikings, NFC, Ben Leber, Brett Favre Updated: January 28, 2010 - 3:56 PM
Mike Pereira, the NFL's vice president of officiating, discussed several of the calls or non-calls from the Vikings' overtime loss to New Orleans on Sunday in the NFC title game.
Pereira, appearing on his weekly segment on the NFL Network's "Total Access," show Wednesday and later in a portion that is aired only on NFL.com, admitted a penalty should have been called by referee Pete Morelli's crew on the high-low hit that quarterback Brett Favre took in the third quarter. That would have wiped out a Favre interception.
Pereira also hit on Devery Henderson's catch in overtime that was upheld on review despite the fact the ball appeared to hit the ground (the question there was possession) and the fourth-down run and jump by Saints running back Pierre Thomas that was reviewed and ended up with the first-down ruling being upheld.
But one play Pereira did not discuss was the pass interference call on Vikings linebacker Ben Leber that moved the ball to the Vikings 29-yard line in overtime and got the Saints in position to kick the winning field goal. Leber was still upset about the call on Monday in large part because the pass for tight end David Thomas did not appear to be catchable.
Asked about the fact Pereira did not discuss that call in his NFL Network segment, league spokesman Greg Aiello said in an e-mail this morning that the league clearly supported the judgement call of the official. Wrote Aiello: "If the defender steps on the foot of a receiver while not playing the ball, the rule is that it is pass interference. Tangled feet with the defensive player not playing the ball is a foul by rule."
OK, the next thing you are going to point out is the ball did not appear to be catchable. That, however, is a judgment call and the official in this case judged it to be catchable. So let the debate continue.
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