Referee Jeff Triplette wrongly announced the enforcement of a penalty on Sunday night in Detroit, the second time this season that he misunderstood a rule and needed to be corrected by a colleague.
Triplette’s mistake on Sunday night came when the Broncos were flagged for taunting after a touchdown. Triplette initially turned on his microphone and announced that the Lions had chosen to enforce the Broncos’ penalty on the extra point attempt. Eventually someone corrected Triplette and told him that taunting penalties after touchdowns can only be enforced on the ensuing kickoff, not on the extra point.
Triplette also made a mistake in Week One, when he wrongly announced that the Seahawks would re-kick in overtime following a Rams invalid fair catch signal. Eventually that got straightened out, likely because the replay assistant violated protocols to give Triplette a hand. But it never should have come to that because Triplette should have known that an invalid fair catch signal penalty is enforced from the spot of the foul and doesn’t result in a re-kick.
To be clear, these issues aren’t about Triplette missing a call. Every referee misses a call sometimes. These are issues about Triplette not knowing the rules. And the referees are expected to know all the rules. Twice in three weeks this season, Triplette has turned on his microphone and publicly revealed that he didn’t know the rules.
Triplette has long been recognized as one of the league’s worst referees. It was a Triplette blunder that led to the NFL changing its instant replay system to allow the league office to help the referees get the calls right. But there’s only so much that the league office and the replay assistants can do to bail Triplette out. If he can’t remember the rules of the NFL, perhaps he shouldn’t be an NFL referee.