Interesting Technical Situation

[Back In The Saddle]

IMHO, this is a crew screw up. The players did everything right. If there's a T, it's a team T on the crew. There is no way the crew can justify a T on the substituting team here.

One of the realities of officiating is that there is (almost) always a correct way to do something, and a (sometimes) a right way to do it. The difference between a really good official and a great one is the ability to do the right things when required. Doing that absolutely requires knowing the correct way. It also requires the ability to discern when the correct thing is the wrong thing. Then you need to have the stones, presence, credibility and people skills to pull it off.

But this OP is really simple and routine. It is each official's responsibility to ensure this never happens. All three officials screwed this up.