Mike Tomlin and the rest of Steelers nation were all praying for the Chiefs to beat the Chargers on Sunday so that Pittsburgh could claim the final wildcard spot in the AFC. However, that didn’t happen, and there were several officiating no-calls that were highly questionable in the game. CBS Sports reports that on Monday Tomlin spoke out about the outcome of the game and the officiating debacles that went with it.
“Obviously, there’s a lot of work that needs to be done from an officiating standpoint. I think it’s been well-documented in the last several weeks, not only in stadiums we’ve played in, but others [too].
“I always want to be someone that’s part of the solution as opposed to someone that’s complaining and moaning about the problem. I intend to roll my sleeves up and offer any insight I can in making [the league] the very best it can be moving forward.”
“Those guys do a great job of communicating during difficult times, and I appreciate that. But it doesn’t change what transpired.”
Tomlin is of course referring to fact that there were seven men on the line of scrimmage when Ryan Succop missed a 41-yard field goal that went wide right. The NFL admitted today that this was an officiating mistake to not throw the flag. Let’s not be too hasty and forget that when Mike Tomlin’s foot was in the field of play during the Ravens game causing Jacoby Jones to change direction and subsequently miss a possible run for a TD, there was no call on Tomlin then. He was eventually fined $100K by the league, but I’m guessing that Tomlin may be a little bitter that the refs in the Chargers game won’t be penalized the way he was.
Either way officiating will always have human error. There have been major bad calls or no calls this season, but this is a redundant argument every season. Every year the league promises adjustments and changes, but the human error will remain.