Lions receiver Calvin Johnson caught a pass in the end zone on Sunday, but the officials ruled that Johnson had pushed off on Eagles cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha, and the offensive pass interference penalty wiped out the touchdown. Johnson isn’t happy with the officials, or with Asomugha.
“There was hardly any contact,” Johnson told the Detroit Free Press. “I was just feeling where I was at. I went back and watched it on film and I was like, ‘Come on, ref.’”
Johnson said it was Asomugha who convinced the official to throw the flag by making it look like Johnson had pushed him a lot harder than he did, and by yelling to the official that Johnson had pushed him. Johnson said that if the NFL had a rule similar to the rule just adopted by the NBA, which fines players for flopping to try to draw fouls, then Asomugha would get fined.
“The crazy thing was, [the official] was looking at me and didn’t throw the flag until after the dude [Asomugha] said something,” Johnson said. “He would have been fined; that would have been a fine. I am glad the NBA is starting that rule. That used to tick me off about the NBA, too.”
Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford agreed with Johnson, saying that after some light contact, “Nnamdi jumped all the way out of the end zone.”
Johnson, who has just one touchdown this season, says that fact doesn’t frustrate him: He says that he almost always gets double covered near the end zone, so Stafford goes elsewhere. But he is frustrated that he lost a touchdown on Sunday because Asomugha flopped.