GL play in SB

[prosec34]

Originally posted by Zebra29
Something I have not seen anywhere, but could explain Hittner's dead-ball, then TD signal....


We have only seen one angle of the play, the angle where we see Hittner's one-armed dead ball signal, followed by a two-armed TD signal about 2 seconds later.

Is it possible that he felt the runner was short and spotting the ball, however his linesman across the field from him (with perhaps a better angle to see the ball in the runner's arm) who we can not see in any of the replays we have been shown thus far went up with a TD signal, and thus Hittner, yielding to him mirrored his TD signal?

The play did happen pretty much in the center of the field, for both wings to have an equal look at.

Thoughts?

At first I disagreed with you, but looking at the photos posted by OverAndBack, you could be right. The linesman on the other side might have had a clear view of Rothlisburger. But I really doubt he could have been more confident of the call since Rothlisburger's back is to him, preventing that official from seeing the ball.