Bill Belichick and Gene Steratore are not seeing eye-to-eye on a play from Sunday’s Patriots-Dolphins game.
During the first quarter, the Dolphins appeared to fumble the ball on a run play but forward progress was ruled. That meant the Dolphins could keep the ball even though the Patriots recovered the fumble.
This led Steratore, who’s a former NFL ref, to say that this play is reviewable and that replay would’ve overturned the call.
“Progress was ruled too quickly, but this specific instance is reviewable. Since the ball came loose following immediate contact and there was a clear recovery, I believe replay would have overturned and awarded the ball to New England,” Steratore tweeted.
Belichick then disagreed with that assessment and said that he couldn’t challenge forward progress.
It’s definitely not a good sign when one of the best coaches in NFL history and a longtime former official disagree on what a rule is.
It looks like Steratore might be right considering this play is “not reviewable” according to the rules.
We’ll have to see if this gets changed when the competition committee meets during the off-season.