Here is something that I have wondered about.
Everyone has seen the video but we have no audio. All of the conclusions say, 68 must’ve reported because he was by the ref. So were two others, however, including 70. If we look closely at the video, the referee appears to be looking at 70 jogging toward him almost the entire time.
All we are left with is two people, accusing each other. There appears to be absolutely no proof of either side of the story.
However…..
It has been reported that the referee went to Dallas and reported that 70 was a designated receiver. If that was true, even if that had been a mistake, should the play be allowed to stand?
An example is that I’ve seen this from high school to the pros, if a referee has an inadvertent whistle, the play ends. They don’t speculate and play what if but the referees mistake negates anything in the future. We may have seen plays in the past, and I remember a couple, where a person broke into the open but the referee blew the whistle. They cannot speculate on what might have happened. If the referee makes a mistake, nothing after the mistake can go forward.
So if 68 actually reported to the ref but the ref went to Dallas and mistakenly said it was 70, should the play go forward? Dallas could legitimately say, we did not line up to cover 68 because he should not have been an eligible receiver.
The stuff that Campbell said about drawing up the play before the game on notifying the officials, which apparently is routine, should be meaningless within the rules. I imagine that’s just to give the referees a heads up of what “might” happen because what if Campbell wanted to run the exact play that he showed the referees before the game, but changed his mind and use a different lineman as a receiver? His excuse of, I told him before the game what might be coming… So what? Is his play calling limited to what he told the referees before the game? That would be ludicrous.