Last month, Dennis Johnson explained to us that the “Official Review” segment previously handled by former V.P. of officiating Mike Pereira would be replaced this year with a trio of members of the league’s Competition Committee, who would rotate into the hot seat on a weekly basis.
But after a month of the Rich McKay-Bill Polian-Jeff Fisher merry-go-round, “Official Review” is back, with new V.P. of officiating Carl Johnson handling the duties.
Said Dennis Johnson of NFL Network in an e-mail sent to us earlier this week: “We wanted to give Carl time to focus first on making the transition into his new position. He told us that he’s now ready to fit ‘Official Review’ into his schedule. Carl’s ‘Official Review’ and Competition Committee co-chair Rich McKay’s ‘Competition Committee’ segments will rotate on NFL Total Access for the rest of the season.”
Carl Johnson’s debut focused on the application of the league’s new rule that blows a play dead if the ball carrier’s helmet comes off. In the online-only bonus edition, Johnson focused only on the celebration penalty in the Titans-Cowboys game. There was no reference to the application (or lack thereof) to the Calvin Johnson rule in the closing moments of the Bucs-Bengals game.