Blandino: Refs incorrectly handled key end-zone call at end of Lions-Seahawks

[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by AremRed

As a neutral in this game and a non-football official I immediately thought that Wright batted the ball on purpose and thought he made a great play. It never occurred to me that such an action might be illegal -- there were no nearby offensive players attempting to recover the ball, etc. I'm still unsure why this rule would be in effect in any situation other than trying to bat it away from an offensive player about to recover the ball. In this situation I see no advantage gained.

If no advantage was gained, why didn't he try to gain possession of the ball himself?

I haven't seen video of this play, but he must've made some choice in how he handled the ball between one way that maximized the chance of the ball going out of bounds and another way that maximized the chance that he'd recover it. Obviously the rules makers of the major codes wanted to encourage the latter type of play & discourage the former. Presumably the judgment required by the covering official would be similar to that for whether a passer intentionally grounds the ball.