It’s become a familiar refrain this season as NFL officials have come under heavy criticism seemingly every week for missed calls, unusual calls or a general lack of consistency.
But things may have reached a peak on ABC’s national broadcast of Monday Night Football when Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman called out Land Clark’s officiating crew for taking too long to come to a decision on what seemed like a relatively innocuous play.
With under a minute to go in the first half, a kickoff hit New York Giants special teamer Lawrence Cager’s leg and bounced out of bounds, something officials didn’t see initially when they threw a penalty flag.
‘Just make the call,’ Aikman exclaimed. ‘There’s 13 seconds left in the half. Just make a decision and this is what stops all of these games. The officials I know they’ve been talked about every week but this is ridiculous what we’re watching right now.’
All told, it took several minutes for the officials to come to the conclusion that the ball did, in fact, hit Cager and there was no penalty on the play.
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The criticism was pretty harsh, especially coming from Aikman, who’s not known for frequent hot takes in the broadcast booth.
The Giants ended up taking a knee and running out the final seconds of the first half, which they would likely have done anyway, even with the penalty.
Aikman’s comments also came under unique circumstances, with the Giants-Packers game airing on broadcast television instead of cable.
ABC was airing one of two Monday Night Football broadcasts going on simultaneously. ESPN, which usually has a single game on Monday nights, was carrying the Miami Dolphins vs. the Tennessee Titans.