NFL looking into potential rule change off Patriots-Seahawks incident

The Patriots may end up partially responsible for a new NFL rule change when it comes to officiating.

Per ESPN, the NFL competition committee is discussing if replay officials should have the ability to throw a flag for certain missed penalties. The discussion at least partially stemmed from an egregious non-call in the Super Bowl between the Patriots and Seahawks. Seattle cornerback Josh Jobe hit Patriots wide receiver Stefon Diggs late and out of bounds, and Diggs responded with a shove, to which Jobe responded by punching Diggs with a closed fist. No penalties were called, and Jobe got to stay in the game despite an infraction that should've been an automatic ejection.

NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent acknowledged that there would be potential for this rule change to backfire, if replay officials start litigating every play. He explained that the goal right now is to keep it to fighting and other incidents that go beyond football.

"You don't want to just be expanding the Pandora's box," Vincent told reporters on Monday, "but we believe that things like the non-football act, you can really, really restrict what that is. That's something that we believe that potentially there's a little bit of tweaking in the language, that may be the first step."

Vincent specifically cited the Diggs-Jobe incident from the Super Bowl as one of the reasons for this possible change. Former NFL referee and rules analyst for NBC Terry McAulay agreed in real-time during the Super Bowl broadcast that a flag should "absolutely" have been thrown, and explained that the lack of a penalty call on the field precluded officials from the ability to then eject Jobe from the game.

A single, flagrant act like throwing a punch can result in immediate disqualification. But if no flag is thrown for the infraction, no punishment can be handed out. It's the "non-football acts" that some members of the competition committee want replay officials to retroactively penalize when the officials miss obvious calls.

"That may be the first step in getting to put flags on the field," Vincent said. "I just think in the era of legalized sports betting, just as a former player, I would've found it very difficult to be at Lincoln Financial [Field], a big play occurred, nothing happened real-time in the stadium and then all of a sudden, 10, 12 or 25 seconds later before the ball snapped again, I see [a penalty flag] on the field before the next snap. I don't know."

The officiating may be far from the reasons the Patriots lost the Super Bowl to the Seahawks, and this rule change won't undo that game. But this particular moment was a bad look for the officials and a sign that changes needed to be made.