Rich: Why the NFL Will NEVER Put a Flag on the Field Via Replay Assist after a Play Is Over

Picture it. A big play happens, no flag flies, your team celebrates. Then someone in a room you will never see decides there should have been a penalty, and suddenly there is one.

Rich does not think the NFL will ever let that happen, and he made the case on the show.

Start with how fans already watch. Rich admitted he is now trained to look for the yellow flag graphic every time something great happens for his team or his fantasy team. "Please don't let me, I don't want to see that yellow flag," he said, describing the dread of a third and 20 conversion wiped out by an illegal contact call "15 million miles away, way off your screen." September tends to bring more flags as officials make clear how they have been told to call the game, and those usually abate in October, November and December. But the feeling stays.

Now imagine that same moment for a penalty that was never thrown at all.

"Some human being somewhere in the netherworld that we don't see, we don't know," Rich said. "That person is chiming in to say, put a flag on the field. I don't think the NFL will ever do that." Flags, in his view, will always be picked up by the official who threw them. The only exception he sees is 12 men on the field, which can be reviewed and turned into a flag after the fact.

The issue the league will keep facing is coaches asking whether it blew a call. Sean McVay got his answer this week. A pass interference flag, thrown by an official behind the play, wiped out what would have been a close to game-sealing interception by Josh Wallace. That official did not see Pat Bryant's right arm yank Wallace along, which makes the catch, with Wallace getting his right knee down, even more impressive.

Asked what he heard back from the league, McVay was simple. "That they agreed with me," he said, confirming the NFL told him it was not pass interference. McVay stressed that the game is over and the Rams are 1-2, and that what he cares about is feedback he can use to coach his defensive backs. "I wouldn't change the way that I'm coaching Josh Wallace on how to play the cycle of that snap," he said.

Rich's point is that the fix already exists on the field. The official in front of the play, staring right at it with the flag tucked in his belt, did not throw it. The back official, who did throw it, had the vantage point on the catch. "They do have the ability to verbally communicate with each other," Rich said. "Do it before blowing it."

Even Bryant admitted what happened. "It was a little pass interference," he said. "I did sell it just enough, you know what I'm saying, to get the flag." He added that Wallace "definitely gave me a shove," and when asked about the art of the flop, he said once a defender gives you a push, "it's either illegal contact or pass interference," and plenty of players use that to their advantage.

Rich's takeaway came from Rod Woodson, who told him more than 20 years ago on NFL Total Access what Chuck Noll used to tell the Steelers every week: the refs are going to blow some calls, so play so far ahead that it does not matter. Rich noted that this came from the coach who got the Immaculate Reception to go his way.

And the replay booth adding penalties after the fact? Rich returned to the same conclusion. "People already think the game is rigged right now," he said. "After further review, there was some form of penalty that we didn't see live, but somebody else did. First down. People will go nuts."