During a Wednesday morning interview on Sirius NFL Radio, NFL V.P. of officiating Mike Pereira took issue with the failure of the officiating crew to flag Vikings running back Adrian Peterson for unsportsmanlike conduct for removing his helmet after scoring what turned out to be the game-winning touchdown against the Packers on Sunday.
“I can’t figure out why anything wasn’t done about that,” Pereira told Randy Cross and Peter King, “but I will say this: It frustrates me that we didn’t do anything about that. You can’t take your helmet off either to argue a call or to celebrate. If you’re in a time out period or a measurement or a challenge there are times when you can take your helmet off on the field. Or when you’re nearing your team area when you approach the bench. But when you score like that, when you remove your helmet you should be flagged. Or when you take off your helmet to argue with the officials you should be flagged, too, and it frustrates me, quite frankly, that we didn’t do that.”
Wow.
We appreciate the candor, especially since the question has been so hotly debated since we posted an item regarding the non-call. Nearly 150 comments have been generated, and we’ve got a feeling that a few more will be attached to this posting as well.
Clearly, the Vikings avoided a major problem on this one. If Minnesota had kicked off from their own 15 while leading the game by one point with more than two minutes to play, chances are that game-winning field goal attempt would have been launched closer than 52 yards from the goal post.