According to the good folks at SI.com, immediately after Minnesota's 27-10 victory over the Detroit Lions yesterday, Vikings' coach Brad Childress was on the phone with the NFL's VP of Officiating, Mike Periera. Chilly was apparently livid over the helmet-to-helmet hit call against defensive end Ray Edwards that led directly to the lone Detroit touchdown of the afternoon, particularly considering that it didn't appear that Edwards hit Lions' quarterback Matthew Stafford's helmet at all.
And in response, Periera. . .agreed?
Edwards was flagged for unnecessary roughness after hurdling a cut block with a Superman-style leap to take down Stafford and force an incompletion on third down at the 13, leading to Detroit's only TD. Childress called NFL officiating VP Mike Pereira after the game to complain about that call, and he said Pereira agreed with him that it wasn't a penalty.
Well, yeah. . .after seeing the replay, it was pretty clear that it wasn't a penalty. For starters, Edwards didn't "launch" himself at Stafford. . .he was leaping over an attempted cut block by a Detroit running back. It didn't appear that Edwards had any sort of malicious intent towards Stafford on the play. Secondly, it appeared that Edwards hit Stafford with his shoulder, not with his helmet.
I'm sure that Edwards will still get fined for this. . .but he shouldn't. It was an outstanding play from a guy that had a monster game yesterday. The Lions were bound and determined to not let Jared Allen beat them on Sunday, and to their credit, he didn't. Ray Edwards, on the other hand, certainly beat them and helped administer a beating to Matthew Stafford and company that certainly left the rookie from Georgia a little sore this morning.