During an early third quarter New England drive against the Bills last night, Tom Brady scrambled from the pocket toward the sideline and found Danny Amendola for what looked to be a big gain. He was behind the entire Bills defense save for one defensive back covering Rob Gronkowski, who could probably throw a decent block. It was going to be a big gain, and possibly even a touchdown. But then a referee on the sideline blew his whistle and the play eventually stopped. Confusion reigned—did Brady step out? Nope. Did Amendola? Nope. The refs came clean and said it was an inadvertent whistle. This being the NFL, there's a rule for that. These being NFL refs, they screwed that up, too.This is how the rulebook addresses this exact scenario:
[ESPN]
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So, the referees clearly biffed the play at the outset with the inadvertent whistle. And when you watch the play, it sure sounds like they biffed the application of the rule as well. The whistle is audible before Amendola catches the ball. So the play should have been a straight-up redo. However, the referees placed the ball at the spot where Amendola gained possession, plus 15 yards for a coach's interference on Rex Ryan, who may have actually caused the ref to spazz out.In what is increasingly a weekly mea culpa, NFL VP of officiating Dean Blandino said that the line judge lost sight of the ball and inadvertently blew his whistle. Blandino also admitted wondering the reason for the whistle as he watched in real time, and added "It was a mistake. Whistle shouldn't have been blown." As you can see, Rex was in front of the ref on the play, on the white part of the sideline, gesturing at Brady right before the referee put the whistle to his mouth. Presumably the line judge lost sight of the ball because Rex was nearby, and that may have played a part in his whistle.The Patriots were clearly screwed over by the play, but then the Bills got screwed over by the enforcement. It's pretty obvious that Amendola did not have the ball when the whistle was blown, so it makes you wonder if the refs fudged the rule to make it a bit more equitable. Sort of a "sorry for messing up a probable touchdown play, here's some extra yardage!" move.In the end, it didn't cost the Patriots much, just a little bit of sweat at the end the game. That particular drive sputtered out, and the near-automatic Gostkowski missed a 54-yard field goal. But they were up 10-3 at the time, and ended up winning 20-13. There was at least one good thing to come out of this whole mess, though: Bill Belichick attempting to fly while saying "shut the fuck up," as the home crowd booed Gene Steratore.NFL dead ball instructions are discussed in Rule 7, Section 2, Article 1 of the NFL rulebook. Part of the rule states that "when an official sounds his whistle erroneously while the ball is still in play, the ball becomes dead immediately."
The rule goes on to note that if a player has possession at the time of the whistle, the team can elect to take possession at the point of possession or redo the play. But if the ball is loose "resulting from a legal forward pass" -- in other words, if it's in the air -- the ball is returned to the previous spot, and the down is replayed.