Detroit Lions president Rod Wood knows the narrative: The Lions get bad calls and the NFL doesn’t give them the benefit of the doubt because they’re, you know, the Lions.
That narrative was furthered recently when the league refused to push back the Dec. 26 game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that left the Lions severely shorthanded on the coaching staff because of COVID-related issues.
And it was again furthered in Sunday’s season finale when referee Adrian Hill called a questionable and pivotal penalty on Tracy Walker for roughing the passer in a 37-35 loss to the Minnesota Vikings.
But Wood dispelled notions of league bias against his team during a conference call with reporters Tuesday.
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“I think we have a really good relationship with the League, notwithstanding some of the evidence to the contrary,” Wood said. “I have a lot of contacts in the league that I talk to regularly. I think they are as supportive as they can be and I don’t think intentionally treat us any different than other teams, even though it might appear that way.
“With regard to rescheduling the (Buccaneers) game, certainly it could’ve been done, but the game had been moved to Saturday. It was a national TV game. I don’t think that we were treated any worse than Denver was a few weeks ago when they had to play a wide receiver from their practice squad at quarterback. There’s been other teams unfortunately that have had difficult issues with COVID-19, and this was our turn. I understand why they made the decision. We asked, but I don’t think it was because of any ill will towards the Detroit Lions on that front.”
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Hill’s call on Walker nullified a fourth-down sack and resulted in a fresh set of downs that allowed the Vikings to a key touchdown two plays later.
“Officiating, clearly we had our share of calls that we wish went the other way,” Wood said. “I think a lot of other teams probably feel the same way, too. I do see reports after every game that we send in to the league, asking about specific calls. Quite often they acknowledge it probably could’ve gone the other way, sometimes they point out that we’re wrong and how we look at it.
“So we have a good relationship with the league and hopefully we don’t have to rely upon refs’ calls to win games; we just go out and do it ourself. That’s what we should be trying to do.”
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Contact Carlos Monarrez at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @cmonarrez.
