Unless you've been living under a rock for the last few days, then you know that, while the Cowboys beat the Lions in a playoff game on Sunday, they did so due in large part to a controversial call that was made—or rather not made—by the referees who were officiating the game. After calling a pass interference penalty on Dallas, which likely would have resulted in Detroit scoring at least three points, referee Pete Morelli picked up the flag and announced that there was no penalty on the play, even though it definitely appeared as though Cowboys linebacker Anthony Hitchens committed pass interference on Lions tight end Brandon Pettigrew. So over the last 72 hours, everyone from former NFL referees to NFL fans have chimed in on the non-call and said that Detroit got robbed.
It sounds like President Obama agrees with those people, too. Yesterday, he did an interview with The Detroit News and said that he would be "pretty aggravated" over the call if he were a Lions fans. He also said that he couldn't "remember a circumstance in which a good call by one of the refs is argued about by an opposing player of the other team with his helmet off on the field [Ed. Note: Dez Bryant was guilty of doing this.], which in and of itself is supposed to be a penalty."
"The call is announced and then reversed without explanation," President Obama told The Detroit News. "I haven't seen that before—so I will leave it up to the experts to make the judgment as to why that happened—but I can tell you if I was a Lions fan I'd be pretty aggravated."
Do you agree with the President's assessment of the referees' non-call? Either way, there's not anything that the Lions or their fans can do about it at this point. And as President Obama pointed out, Lions fans should probably just be happy about how well their team did this season.
"Given the performance of my Bears," he said, "I can't have too much sympathy for the Lions."
Ha. Good point, Mr. President.
[via Detroit News]
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