Pass interference or not?

[Travis34]

Did any of you guys watch the Packers/Saints game? Right at the end that call on AJ Hawk for pass interference was so bogus! He fully jumped over the little guy, and batted the ball down. It doesn't appear to me that he shoved him or did anything wrong.

Some people think he went through him or something. I don't get it

 

[Fins1971]

Agreed, that was NOT pass interference.

 

[normaldude]

Same here. He was going for the ball. Not pass interference.

There's a lot of speculation about refs deliberately fudging the calls to either..

a) Make the games close, and thus boost viewership ratings and TV commercial revenue for the NFL, through the end of the game.

b) To fix the games, for gambling purposes. This is not wild conspiracy theory. It already happened in the NBA. It could be happening in the NFL.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=munson_lester&id=2976241
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/phil_taylor/12/08/donaghy/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Donaghy

 

[4th And Drunk]

I won't go as far as to suggest the officiating is corrupt, but the call was bad. He definately made contact, but he was also playing the ball. It was a bad call, absolutely - but I can see how that particular call could have been made in the heat of the moment. I've also noticed how reluctant officials are to back off their own questionable calls at the most important moments of games.

Fortunately this call had no impact on the game but we've seen worse and we'll see worse.