By Bill Bradley, contributing editor
NFL vice president of officiating Dean Blandino said Denver Broncos wide receiver Wes Welker did not make illegal contact when he bumped New England Patriots cornerback Aqib Talib during Sunday's AFC Championship Game.
Speaking during his weekly "Official Review" segment on "NFL Total Access," Blandino said Wednesday that Welker's hit on Talib while running a pick route was legal contact. Futhermore, Blandino said Welker did not commit offensive pass interference.
Talib suffered rib and knee injuries on the first-half play, knocking him out of the game. On Monday, Patriots coach Bill Belichick called the play dirty and illegal, an assertion that was debated on "NFL AM."
"As the contact occurs, the ball is touched almost simultaneously," Blandino said. "We don't have a foul for pass interference.
"The other thing, is it unnecessary roughness? Under the current rules, it isn't. It's not late. Talib was not in the play. Unfortunately, there was an injury, so just like in other situations when an injury does occur, the Competition Committee will take a look at this and determine if there needs to be a change. But under the current rules, this is a legal play"
Blandino also said the referees missed San Francisco 49ers linebacker NaVorro Bowman's strip/fumble of Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Jermaine Kearse in the NFC Championship Game, a play that resulted in Bowman suffering a severe knee injury.
Replays showed Bowman fumbled after the play as he held onto the ball until he appeared to be down and then dropped the ball in pain because his injured left leg was under Kearse. The loose ball caused a scrum with some players jumping on Bowman.
"It's not the right call on the field," Blandino said. "The pass is going to be ruled complete. The key is that the ruling on the field was a fumble recovered by Seattle. That's important because the recovery of the loose ball, if it doesn't involve a sideline, or it doesn't involve the end zone, it's not reviewable. And the reason for that is that if we made that reviewable then you potentially can have a replay reviewed on every pileup after a fumble when a lot of times it's difficult to tell who has it.
"So you could create an exception, and when you look at the replays here, it's clear that Bowman did have possession of the football. If one of our officials had recognized that, we should have given San Francisco possession. So again, this rule will be looked at, possibly to create an exception."
