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By Jourdan Rodrigue, Michael Silver, Jeff Zrebiec, Colton Pouncy, James Boyd, Mike Sando, Ted Nguyen, Mike DeFabo, Nick Kosmider and Jeff Howe
Sept. 29, 2026 Updated 10:55 am CDT
Two controversial calls on Sunday revived a near-annual question: Is there a better way for the NFL to officiate pass interference?
First, a 20-yard penalty against Baltimore Ravens CB Nate Wiggins put the Dallas Cowboys on the verge of a potential go-ahead touchdown with 23 seconds left in Brazil. Wiggins’ arm locked with Cowboys WR CeeDee Lamb’s, and CBS analyst J.J. Watt predicted it would be offensive pass interference against Lamb. Officials saw it differently, flagging the defender.
Dallas wound up settling for a game-tying field goal then lost on the final play of regulation, quieting some (but not all) of the scrutiny. But not for long.
A few hours later during “Sunday Night Football,” with the Los Angeles Rams leading the Denver Broncos by four with a little more than a minute left, Denver faced a third-and-6 inside the red zone. Bo Nix’s pass was intercepted by Josh Wallace, but officials flagged Wallace for pass interference. The Broncos scored the game-winning touchdown six plays later.
“I don’t see the defender do anything that significantly hinders the receiver on this play,” NBC rules analyst Terry McCauley said over replays of the call against Wallace.
It once again raises the question: Why does a league that now allows so many plays to be reviewed not include game-changing pass interference calls on that list?
The NFL experimented with allowing pass interference to be reviewed during the 2019 season, after a missed call in the 2018 NFC Championship Game helped the Rams beat the New Orleans Saints. That experiment lasted only a year, and seemed to satisfy almost nobody.
Competition Committee Chairman Rich McKay said after that season that the PI replay rule would “die a natural death,” while spotlighting the difficulty of using replay on “a totally subjective play.”
But replay has only become more ingrained in the NFL (and other sports) since then. Week 3’s controversial calls had us asking our writers: Is there a better way to officiate pass interference? Here is how they responded.
Allow extensive replay review
The NFL should adopt soccer’s VAR system to quickly legislate these calls. If the broadcast’s officiating analyst is tapped into the league’s command center and can update the audience with a quick interpretation of the call with the help of instantaneous replay angles, there’s absolutely no reason the league can’t do the same for its officiating crew. Let the on-field crew call the game as usual, but give the VAR crew authority to overturn calls until the next play is snapped. If VAR doesn’t find a problem in that short window, it probably shouldn’t be worth a more time-consuming review anyway. — Jeff Howe, national NFL writer
As crazy as it sounds, I think pass interference calls should always be reviewed, the same way we review all touchdowns and turnovers. That’s the only way I could envision PI being called correctly across the board, because in real time it may be hard to see who’s most at fault, the offensive player or the defensive player. I think Broncos receiver Pat Bryant tricked the refs Sunday night when he drew that DPI call on Wallace, which some will argue cost the Rams a win. But even if that was the correct call, by reviewing it, the process would add more validity to what we watched on the field. — James Boyd, Colts beat writer
Allow limited replay review
This is one of those rare problems that doesn’t actually have a good solution. The best I can come up with is “allow reviews on high-yardage penalty calls such as roughing the passer and pass interference, but reviews can only be designated by neutral officials who are co-appointed by the league, referee and players union. Reviews can only happen on calls that could be overturned, not to retroactively assign penalties (because often, contact and intent look very different in slow motion than they do at full speed).” I say that, but even I don’t feel convinced that this would work, and of course this would not solve the related issue of replays taking over the game flow. In the distant future, I imagine technology that either helps slow down a play in real time for certain designated officials or generally allows for less human error will be involved in officiating. But then what will we all rage-post about on Mondays? — Jourdan Rodrigue, national NFL writer
Replay seems like this tantalizing fix but it doesn’t end up making people happy in the end. I could see letting a coach have a subjective challenge ability for use in extreme situations. But opening up more plays to replay in general winds up making things worse probably. — Mike Sando, national NFL writer
It’s the most subjective call in the sport, and the league doesn’t seem interested in fixing what appears to be a problem. A number of issues arose when the NFL made PI reviewable in 2019. Maybe the league could implement a rule where, if a flag is thrown for DPI on an end-zone target or a play that would have resulted in a turnover, it triggers an automatic review to confirm that DPI actually occurred. Those situations are rare enough that they wouldn’t be a major disruption to the flow of a game. Of course, that would still require officials to overturn the call when warranted, which was an issue in 2019. All that is to say, not a ton of confidence in things improving.
More broadly: Receivers aren’t flagged enough for offensive pass interference, and DPI on underthrown balls, on which the receiver has no chance to make a play, are also a problem. It almost makes me want to suggest making DPI a blanket 15-yard penalty like we see in college instead of a spot foul. — Colton Pouncy, Lions beat writer
The NFL allowed pass interference to be reviewable for one season before letting the rule expire. While I get why they didn’t want to deal with the inconsistent standards, I think they should have refined the standards for the rare plays that clearly should be overturned. I don’t think the defensive pass interference at the end of the Rams-Broncos game would have been overturned, because even though it seems like a majority didn’t like it, there was some room for interpretation. At the end of the day, it’s one of the hardest rules to officiate. It happens quickly and there are so many things you have to look at and process in real time. I think with a more refined replay process, you could fix some calls, but it’s always going a highly controversial call because of the stakes. — Ted Nguyen, national NFL writer
Improve the real-time officiating
It’s a slippery slope, because introducing replay for pass interference calls was a disaster. On the other hand, calls like the one late in the Rams-Broncos game can’t happen. Just can’t happen. At the end of the day, I’m not sure there’s much we can do except trust the referees to be better at their jobs. — Matt Schneidman, Packers beat writer
Those charged with improving America’s most popular sport should never throw their hands up and say, “Eh, this is as good as it’s going to get,” so I’m not exactly advocating for anyone to take that stance. However, it’s notable that the coach who was on the wrong end of the missed call in the NFC Championship Game that fueled the league’s ill-fated PI-review system in 2019, Sean Payton, had this to say when asked about the latest PI controversy involving his current Broncos team: “The longer you get in this thing, the less you discuss penalties. You just got to go out and play. I’ve yet to see one get changed either way. You hope that when the game’s over with, the season’s over with, you’re on the positive side of the ledger.”
Yes, Payton benefited from the latest call. But he’s been on the other side of the heartbreak, and there’s nothing he has seen in more than three decades in the NFL that makes him believe there is a perfect fix to a problem that is subjective in its very nature. When the NFL created the interference-review rule in 2019, only 13 of 81 coach challenges were overturned. The standard to alter a call was so high that the response en masse of, Then why do we have this rule at all? led the league to scrap it after one year.
The NFL and the referees association agreed to a new seven-year contract in May that included more offseason training time for officials. Continuing to seek ways to improve the performance of those making the highly subjective calls in critical moments might not be a magic-wand fix, but what evidence have we seen that such a fix is out there? — Nick Kosmider, Broncos beat writer
Loosen the rules
I’d like to see two changes. One, let them play more and fight through contact. Current rules are so heavily favored for the offense, and these passing offenses are so precise, that you need to give DBs a bit more leeway to get their hands on receivers and have a fighting chance to make a play on the ball. Officiate it in a similar manner as holding. There’s holding on pretty much every play. Call the obvious and egregious PI’s and let some of the other stuff go.
I’d also like to see pass interference be one of the things that the “eye in the sky” can look at and radio down if it’s an obvious missed call. They don’t have to be heavy handed with it, but at least correct the obvious mistakes. — Jeff Zrebiec, Ravens beat writer
Get over it
I live in a city that still thinks Jesse James caught that football. So trust me: Adding more instant replay isn’t going to end controversies. It also doesn’t mean we’re going to get more plays called “correctly.” At some point, we need to accept that fact that missed and controversial calls are just part of all sports. Especially for a play like pass interference, there’s inherent subjectivity involved. The closest thing I can think of in another sport is that the NHL lets teams challenge goaltender interference. The result: No one knows what goaltender interference is anymore. Adding more replay risks muddying the waters more than creating more accurate decisions. Ask Jesse James. — Mike DeFabo, Steelers beat writer
Dubious officiating decisions happen — trust me, Sean Payton knows this better than anyone (as does Sean McVay, at Payton’s expense). Controversial calls, or no-calls, are part of the game. The original intent of replay was to correct egregious, objectively verifiable errors, and I get why things such as whether a player caught a ball inbounds or crossed the goal line can be overturned. It’s a different game when it comes to subjective infractions like pass interference or holding.
We saw how futile this was in 2019, after the knee-jerk reaction to what happened to Payton’s Saints. You can’t play God with the eye in the sky and expect your consumers to roll with it. Imagine witnessing an indelible play — like The Catch or the Music City Miracle or the Beast Quake run — and then having an official go back, spot a foul and decree that it never happened. That’s a truly nightmarish scenario. — Michael Silver, national NFL writer
Sept. 29, 2026 Updated 10:55 am CDT
Two controversial calls on Sunday revived a near-annual question: Is there a better way for the NFL to officiate pass interference?
First, a 20-yard penalty against Baltimore Ravens CB Nate Wiggins put the Dallas Cowboys on the verge of a potential go-ahead touchdown with 23 seconds left in Brazil. Wiggins’ arm locked with Cowboys WR CeeDee Lamb’s, and CBS analyst J.J. Watt predicted it would be offensive pass interference against Lamb. Officials saw it differently, flagging the defender.
Dallas wound up settling for a game-tying field goal then lost on the final play of regulation, quieting some (but not all) of the scrutiny. But not for long.
A few hours later during “Sunday Night Football,” with the Los Angeles Rams leading the Denver Broncos by four with a little more than a minute left, Denver faced a third-and-6 inside the red zone. Bo Nix’s pass was intercepted by Josh Wallace, but officials flagged Wallace for pass interference. The Broncos scored the game-winning touchdown six plays later.
“I don’t see the defender do anything that significantly hinders the receiver on this play,” NBC rules analyst Terry McCauley said over replays of the call against Wallace.
It once again raises the question: Why does a league that now allows so many plays to be reviewed not include game-changing pass interference calls on that list?
The NFL experimented with allowing pass interference to be reviewed during the 2019 season, after a missed call in the 2018 NFC Championship Game helped the Rams beat the New Orleans Saints. That experiment lasted only a year, and seemed to satisfy almost nobody.
Competition Committee Chairman Rich McKay said after that season that the PI replay rule would “die a natural death,” while spotlighting the difficulty of using replay on “a totally subjective play.”
But replay has only become more ingrained in the NFL (and other sports) since then. Week 3’s controversial calls had us asking our writers: Is there a better way to officiate pass interference? Here is how they responded.
Allow extensive replay review
The NFL should adopt soccer’s VAR system to quickly legislate these calls. If the broadcast’s officiating analyst is tapped into the league’s command center and can update the audience with a quick interpretation of the call with the help of instantaneous replay angles, there’s absolutely no reason the league can’t do the same for its officiating crew. Let the on-field crew call the game as usual, but give the VAR crew authority to overturn calls until the next play is snapped. If VAR doesn’t find a problem in that short window, it probably shouldn’t be worth a more time-consuming review anyway. — Jeff Howe, national NFL writer
As crazy as it sounds, I think pass interference calls should always be reviewed, the same way we review all touchdowns and turnovers. That’s the only way I could envision PI being called correctly across the board, because in real time it may be hard to see who’s most at fault, the offensive player or the defensive player. I think Broncos receiver Pat Bryant tricked the refs Sunday night when he drew that DPI call on Wallace, which some will argue cost the Rams a win. But even if that was the correct call, by reviewing it, the process would add more validity to what we watched on the field. — James Boyd, Colts beat writer
Allow limited replay review
This is one of those rare problems that doesn’t actually have a good solution. The best I can come up with is “allow reviews on high-yardage penalty calls such as roughing the passer and pass interference, but reviews can only be designated by neutral officials who are co-appointed by the league, referee and players union. Reviews can only happen on calls that could be overturned, not to retroactively assign penalties (because often, contact and intent look very different in slow motion than they do at full speed).” I say that, but even I don’t feel convinced that this would work, and of course this would not solve the related issue of replays taking over the game flow. In the distant future, I imagine technology that either helps slow down a play in real time for certain designated officials or generally allows for less human error will be involved in officiating. But then what will we all rage-post about on Mondays? — Jourdan Rodrigue, national NFL writer
Replay seems like this tantalizing fix but it doesn’t end up making people happy in the end. I could see letting a coach have a subjective challenge ability for use in extreme situations. But opening up more plays to replay in general winds up making things worse probably. — Mike Sando, national NFL writer
It’s the most subjective call in the sport, and the league doesn’t seem interested in fixing what appears to be a problem. A number of issues arose when the NFL made PI reviewable in 2019. Maybe the league could implement a rule where, if a flag is thrown for DPI on an end-zone target or a play that would have resulted in a turnover, it triggers an automatic review to confirm that DPI actually occurred. Those situations are rare enough that they wouldn’t be a major disruption to the flow of a game. Of course, that would still require officials to overturn the call when warranted, which was an issue in 2019. All that is to say, not a ton of confidence in things improving.
More broadly: Receivers aren’t flagged enough for offensive pass interference, and DPI on underthrown balls, on which the receiver has no chance to make a play, are also a problem. It almost makes me want to suggest making DPI a blanket 15-yard penalty like we see in college instead of a spot foul. — Colton Pouncy, Lions beat writer
The NFL allowed pass interference to be reviewable for one season before letting the rule expire. While I get why they didn’t want to deal with the inconsistent standards, I think they should have refined the standards for the rare plays that clearly should be overturned. I don’t think the defensive pass interference at the end of the Rams-Broncos game would have been overturned, because even though it seems like a majority didn’t like it, there was some room for interpretation. At the end of the day, it’s one of the hardest rules to officiate. It happens quickly and there are so many things you have to look at and process in real time. I think with a more refined replay process, you could fix some calls, but it’s always going a highly controversial call because of the stakes. — Ted Nguyen, national NFL writer
Improve the real-time officiating
It’s a slippery slope, because introducing replay for pass interference calls was a disaster. On the other hand, calls like the one late in the Rams-Broncos game can’t happen. Just can’t happen. At the end of the day, I’m not sure there’s much we can do except trust the referees to be better at their jobs. — Matt Schneidman, Packers beat writer
Those charged with improving America’s most popular sport should never throw their hands up and say, “Eh, this is as good as it’s going to get,” so I’m not exactly advocating for anyone to take that stance. However, it’s notable that the coach who was on the wrong end of the missed call in the NFC Championship Game that fueled the league’s ill-fated PI-review system in 2019, Sean Payton, had this to say when asked about the latest PI controversy involving his current Broncos team: “The longer you get in this thing, the less you discuss penalties. You just got to go out and play. I’ve yet to see one get changed either way. You hope that when the game’s over with, the season’s over with, you’re on the positive side of the ledger.”
Yes, Payton benefited from the latest call. But he’s been on the other side of the heartbreak, and there’s nothing he has seen in more than three decades in the NFL that makes him believe there is a perfect fix to a problem that is subjective in its very nature. When the NFL created the interference-review rule in 2019, only 13 of 81 coach challenges were overturned. The standard to alter a call was so high that the response en masse of, Then why do we have this rule at all? led the league to scrap it after one year.
The NFL and the referees association agreed to a new seven-year contract in May that included more offseason training time for officials. Continuing to seek ways to improve the performance of those making the highly subjective calls in critical moments might not be a magic-wand fix, but what evidence have we seen that such a fix is out there? — Nick Kosmider, Broncos beat writer
Loosen the rules
I’d like to see two changes. One, let them play more and fight through contact. Current rules are so heavily favored for the offense, and these passing offenses are so precise, that you need to give DBs a bit more leeway to get their hands on receivers and have a fighting chance to make a play on the ball. Officiate it in a similar manner as holding. There’s holding on pretty much every play. Call the obvious and egregious PI’s and let some of the other stuff go.
I’d also like to see pass interference be one of the things that the “eye in the sky” can look at and radio down if it’s an obvious missed call. They don’t have to be heavy handed with it, but at least correct the obvious mistakes. — Jeff Zrebiec, Ravens beat writer
Get over it
I live in a city that still thinks Jesse James caught that football. So trust me: Adding more instant replay isn’t going to end controversies. It also doesn’t mean we’re going to get more plays called “correctly.” At some point, we need to accept that fact that missed and controversial calls are just part of all sports. Especially for a play like pass interference, there’s inherent subjectivity involved. The closest thing I can think of in another sport is that the NHL lets teams challenge goaltender interference. The result: No one knows what goaltender interference is anymore. Adding more replay risks muddying the waters more than creating more accurate decisions. Ask Jesse James. — Mike DeFabo, Steelers beat writer
Dubious officiating decisions happen — trust me, Sean Payton knows this better than anyone (as does Sean McVay, at Payton’s expense). Controversial calls, or no-calls, are part of the game. The original intent of replay was to correct egregious, objectively verifiable errors, and I get why things such as whether a player caught a ball inbounds or crossed the goal line can be overturned. It’s a different game when it comes to subjective infractions like pass interference or holding.
We saw how futile this was in 2019, after the knee-jerk reaction to what happened to Payton’s Saints. You can’t play God with the eye in the sky and expect your consumers to roll with it. Imagine witnessing an indelible play — like The Catch or the Music City Miracle or the Beast Quake run — and then having an official go back, spot a foul and decree that it never happened. That’s a truly nightmarish scenario. — Michael Silver, national NFL writer
