Example of good teamwork

[ljudge]

Tom White and his NFL crew sure takes their shots by fans and the network "rules gurus" but today I saw a nice piece of teamwork that looked very bad but in the end was 100% the right thing to do.

Early in the game (Eagles v. Bengals) the HL called the defense for being in the neutral zone at the snap. I thought he had called the Eagles for an illegal shift because that's what I noticed. It was a very obvious miss by the crew as there were two men moving at the snap. So, they initially went with the HL's call which was probably correct but the obvious shift was missed in the initial call.

Just before the ensuing snap the LJ killed everything and got the crew together. Eventually Tom White said there were two men moving at the snap (which results in a double foul) and put the ball back at the previous spot. It was an obvious miss and we could easily argue that officials at that level should have called the illegal shift and not miss something so simple. OK bleep happens (and they are human after all) but that's not the point.

It clearly looked bad and as you would expect they got a chorus of boos. But in the end the LJ helped get the call correct and did the proper enforcement. I tell my crew that even if it looks bad, let's get it correct and disregard what everybody in the building thinks. It was a nice piece of teamwork by the crew and in the end they would have looked a whole lot worse if they let Philly go unpenalized.