DeAndre Hopkins became a high-profile victim of what looked like obvious pass interference on Sunday that was not called and not overturned on review, and he’s openly calling for changes in light of that.
After an offseason rule change gave teams the option to challenge pass interference calls, it turned out the rule didn’t really work in practice. Calls are almost never changed on the field from the league review that takes place in New York.
Hopkins was the victim of this Sunday, when what looked like a clear instance of pass interference was not flagged on the field or on review. That prompted Hopkins to take to Twitter after the game and call for new reviewers in New York going forward.
As a leader in the NFL, we need someone new in New York deciding calls. https://t.co/szdHjWhKbR
— Deandre Hopkins (@DeAndreHopkins) November 17, 2019
Would new reviewers even matter? If the NFL is not committed to changing these calls, it doesn’t matter who’s looking at it if there’s resistance to changes at the very top. Hopkins is hardly the first to be critical of the way the system works right now, and it hasn’t made a difference yet.
Amusingly enough, an instance of pass interference that wasn’t all that different from what happened to Hopkins actually was overturned later Sunday. Perhaps the league noticed the outcry over what happened to Hopkins and the Texans and decided to be a little bit proactive.
