Over the past few years, the NFL has passed new rules in the interest of player safety. We’ve seen those rules play out when it comes to roughing-the-passer penalties, and last year, NFL owners went further and voted to eliminated blindside blocks.
During Sunday’s game between the Cardinals and Patriots, though, Bill Belichick has a justifiable beef with how the officiating crew enforced the new rule.
During the second half, Patriots receiver Gunner Olszewski had what looked like an 82-yard punt return for a touchdown. And he got some help late in the return via a block from Anfernee Jennings. That block ended up being ruled a blindside block. Yeah, this block:
Patriots get a TD called back after a player gets flagged for a blindside block on a player that’s actually quite close to making the tackle pic.twitter.com/T0G7INvTAp
— Nate Tice (@Nate_Tice) November 29, 2020
The rule deems it a blindside block when a player “initiates a block when he is moving toward or parallel to his own end line and makes contact to his opponent with his helmet, forearm or shoulder.” Jennings seemed to actually square up with Zeke Turner.
The Patriots ended up settling for a field goal on the drive, and during the TV timeout, Belichick approached the officials with receipts (!!!). He broke out still photos of the block, showing that Jennings was in legal position.
We could see Belichick talking to the officials and showing them photos of what seemed to be this:
bLIndSiDe bLOcK pic.twitter.com/GvPJkiC9eA
— Pats Pulpit (@patspulpit) November 29, 2020
Not that it was going to change the call, but you just knew Belichick was going to try. Classic Belichick.
