Aaron Rodgers has shared his thoughts on the controversial, late call that had everyone talking after the Week 17 fixture between the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys.
Detroit had what should have been a game-winning two-point conversion struck off by an illegal touching penalty, with officials claiming offensive linemen Taylor Decker and Dan Skipper didn’t correctly report their eligibility on the play.
The injured New York Jets quarterback was on ‘The Pat McAfee Show’, as is the case every Tuesday, and weighed in on the subject, bashing the NFL for doing a poor job in its hiring of referees.
“I was part of the Fail Mary when the NFL got too cheap to pay the referees what they’re due and hired a bunch of people who didn’t deserve to be on a high school field. They couldn’t even ref my JC games,” Rodgers said.
“There’s been a lot of talk about the play. I think everybody wants a little bit of accountability, for sure. I don’t understand why three guys went to the referee. I saw [Penei] Sewell went, Decker went and 70 (Skipper) went…I don’t know what [referee] Brad (Allen) was thinking here, it seemed like he left before what could be said.”
The NFL has since accused the Lions of trying to confuse the Cowboys and thereby confusing the refs. Head coach Dan Campbell seemed to admit his players did try bamboozling Dallas while speaking to reporters on Monday.
“It’s about eligibility,” he said. “That’s what it’s about. And it has nothing to do with the ref. The ref knows. He knows. Because 68 reported. It’s for the defense, so that they see three different people. And you’re just hoping they happen to not hear that it’s 70 [who isn’t eligible]. That’s all.”
