As NFL coaches try to figure out how replay review and pass interference will intersect, one coach has a very specific plan: Throw the red flag early, often, and repeatedly.
Vikings coach Mike Zimmer was asked his views on Thursday about the new approach to PI. After asking the reporter who had asked the question regarding whether the reporter was trying to get Zimmer in trouble, Zimmer provided an explanation that underscores the troubles that the rule may create.
“My flag is probably going to get emptied out in the preseason,” Zimmer said. “I think we just have to figure out how they’re going to call it and how they’re going to do it. You know, it’s gone round and round and round so many times. Now it has to be, what’s the words, ‘clear and obvious’ or something like that. . . . So the video that I’ve watched, they sent us another video a couple days ago, had two plays on it, the second play they didn’t even say if it was pass interference or not. [Editor’s note: That’s not good.] I think it’s a work in progress. They went quick with it. They went quick with it and passed it at the owner’s meetings and they’re finding out there’s some possible unintended consequences coming about.”
Zimmer thinks it will take some time to work it all out, but he doesn’t know how long it will take.
“If I touch him like that before the ball gets there, is that pass interference?” Zimmer said. “I don’t know, we’ll have to see. That’s why I’m probably going to throw my flags. It will be fun.”
Oh, it will be something that starts with an F and a U. And quite possibly that ends with “up.”
