A quick post.

In watching the Super Bowl, there was one flag that had me scratching my head. Wonder if any of you saw it or if I missed something.

3rd or 4th quarter. The Tampa Bay defender tackled the Raider by grabbing his jersey up around the neck. When he threw the runner down, the sudden motion looked like a player being whipped around by a hand on the facemask. (Only after the replay did I know that it wasn't a facemask foul).

The covering official threw his flag calling a facemask penalty. However, another official weighed in and they ended up waving off the penalty.

My question: From the onset of our officiating careers, we have it drilled into us to only call what you see and to "never guess a foul" How in the world could the official have called this foul if it didn't exist?

Not to criticize, just wondered if I missed something.

Evidently, the official THOUGHT he saw a facemask foul. If he was reacting to the head jerk or something he thought he saw, we will never know. My guess is that he THOUGHT he saw a hand on the facemask and his suspicions were confirmed by the jerk of the head. Only after consulting did he get the no-call correct.

There were a few calls that left me scratching my head -

no fumble called fumble on kick return
PI on uncatchable ball in the 4th
review of the force out in the back of the end zone (not the call but reviewing it - for what?)
face mask (reminiscent of 88 AFC Champ game in which Bruce Smith pulled down Esiason by the shirt and was calle FM)

The PI really made me wince. The ball landed 4 - 6 yards OB and it was a rainbow so he could catch it if he were 9'8" maybe.

All in all, my first thought was "It's not just the players who get nervous in the SB"