There seem to be 2 issues in the original post, and I'm not sure they're being addressed: pulling, and the pile. Pushing a pile may be legal depending on the details, and pulling another player is sometimes legal too. But I don't see why it's even hard to understand that by "pulling the pile", the official was referring to some illegal use of hands -- in either blocking an opponent, pulling the runner, or interlocked interference -- and it's also clear that for a pile to have been the object, one of those must've occurred. The mere fact that the official didn't specify which, and indeed may not have been able to see which violation it was, doesn't mean it was a bogus call (penalty notwithstanding). When you see someone reach into an opaque cookie jar, even if you can't tell which type of cookie was grabbed, do you have a problem with concluding that a cookie was the object of grasping?
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