…The NFL is thinking about making an in-season change going forward in order to prevent any further embarrassment to the league.

After referees blew the Justin Forsett touchdown call on Thanksgiving, and then flagged Detroit Lions head coach Jim Schwartz for unsportsmanlike conduct because he threw the challenge flag on a play that was already scheduled for review, current rules prevented the review from taking place.

The rule was originally put into place in order to prevent teams from taking intentional penalties or creating excess delays in order to give their coaches time to view replays before deciding whether or not to challenge a prior play, but once all scoring plays were declared “automatically subject to review,” no such advantage from an errant challenge flag exists.

Plain and simple, the refs got the original play wrong, but enforced an ill-conceived rule properly. Which is why the league needs to act swiftly to simply allow refs to pick up and ignore those challenge flags when the rules dictate they already are heading under the hood.

– AJ Mass

via NFL Central – ESPN.