![Seahwaks KJ Wright illegally bats the ball out of bounds on Monday Night Football against the Lions. However the play was not called. Photo from Lions Twitter account.]()
Monday night football this week was played under the bright lights of the Seattle Seahawks' Century Link Field. It was the Detroit Lions playing against the Seattle Seahawks. The game ended up as the home team Seahawks being the victors by a score of 13-10, bringing them to a record of 2-2 but dropped the Lions down to be 0-4, a record they haven’t seen since their 2010 season. The only problem is the controversy to the win.
It was the final quarter of the game, only a minute left. The lions had the ball, and they were at the 13 yard line. Lions quarterback Matt Stafford made a pass to the team wide receiver “Megatron” Calvin Johnson. Johnson made a good run up to the 1-yard line when Seahawks safety Kam Chancellor made a tackle that forced the ball out of Johnson’s hands and into the end zone.
Normally this would be considered a fumble, but since it bounced out of the end zone it would be considered a touchback which means Seattle would get the ball back. The controversy is that while the ball was bouncing in the endzone, Seahawks linebacker KJ Wright made an illegal move, by batting the ball out, that went uncalled.
What KJ Wright did was something that has never really come up before, but it’s called “Illegal Batting”.
The rules of the NFL state that illegal batting is defined as “any player bats or punches a loose ball (that has touched the ground) in any direction, if it is in either end zone.” Had this play have been called as illegal, it would have been the Lions ball on the six inch line, which would have been quite a game changer. Unfortunately, we or either of the other teams will never know what could have happened that game had the Lions got the ball back.
This raises some serious questions for the NFL. Such as; Can we trust the referees, do they really know all the rules and penalties etc. As former refs and other officials state “This should have been illegal batting.” But that’s the problem. Referees can make calls that are at their judgement and when that happens those plays are not subject to review, so what the ref says goes. Given the issues the NFL has been having prior to the start of this season, there is a lot of work cut out for the organization.
