The Dallas Cowboys' 24-20 playoff victory over the Detroit Lions was marred by a late pass interference penalty that was controversially waived off.
Referee Pete Morelli met with Todd Archer of ESPN.com and explained why the call got reversed. Here's the transcript, via a tweet by the Detroit News' Josh Katzenstein:
Archer: Can you talk about the decision to overturn the call and why you overturned the call.
Morelli: The back judge threw his flag for defensive pass interference. We got other information from a different angle that thought the contact was minimal and didn’t warrant pass interference. He thought it was face-guarding.
Archer: Which official?
Morelli: The head linesman.
Archer: What did you see?
Morelli: It’s not my responsibility. I’m a hundred miles away.
Archer: Face-guarding is not a foul?
Morelli: Face-guarding is not a foul. It is a penalty in college but not in professional football.
Archer: What is the process you go through after you announce the call? Should you have waited before you announced the call?
Morelli: Probably, yes. The information came and then the officials got together a little bit later, after it was given to me, the first information. It would probably been smoother if we got together.
Archer: Do you remember this type of (play) happening before?
Morelli: No, not particularly.
Archer: So one more time on who the person was that had the better view?
Morelli: The better view was from the head linesman.
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