It was one of the worst calls in a season full of officiating blunders. Brandon Bolden was flagged for unnecessary roughness when he attempted to tackle Dolphins punter Michael Palardy during Miami’s fake punt attempt late in the first quarter, despite almost missing him entirely.
It was a phantom call that gifted the Dolphins a crucial first down and eventually set up a field goal, which gave Miami an early 17-0 lead.
Years ago, networks added ex-officials as rules analysts for those kind of in-game moments. When the refs screw up, the ombudsmen are supposed to explain why. Instead, Gene Steratore made excuses for his fellow zebras. When commentators Spero Dede and Jay Feely threw it to Steratore, he offered nothing but word salad.
“It’s a tough judgment play, Spiro, for a couple of reasons,” Steratore began. “When a player starts to give himself up, if the defensive player has committed to that tackle right as the player is giving himself up, as is happening here — provided there’s no contact to the head area — which there also isn’t, you wouldn’t want to see a foul on this play. But that play is really a difficult play to referee in real time.”
Steratore’s aside about there being “no contact to the head area” is doing a lot of work. Yes, it looked like Bolden might’ve committed a penalty when he attempted to tackle Palardy, who was sliding as he fell short of the first-down marker. But as Steratore mentioned, Bolden didn’t connect with Palardy’s head. Bolden grazed the punter’s shoulders -- barely.
Steratore did offer an opinion on the call at the end of his meandering monologue, but couched it with more benefit of the doubt.
“I would’ve liked to see a pass on the play, but it’s a hard play to officiate in live action,” he said.
Dede thanked Steratore for “weighing in” when he threw it back to the booth, on behalf of nobody in the audience.
