"The Phantom Flag was an abomination, and will live in infamy." Damon Amendolara
“Can Anybody other than a Cowboy fan explain that call?!” actor Samuel L. Jackson barked on Twitter.
“If I was a Detroit Lions fan, I’d be screaming for referee blood about that,” George R.R. Martin, noted author of the Game of Thrones series, wrote on his blog.
“How do u pick up that flag?????” former quarterback Kurt Warner asked via Twitter.
“Home cooking,” Hall of Famer Warren Sapp noted, implying the Cowboys’ home-field advantage had suddenly become particularly advantageous.
Fox Sports analyst Mike Pereira, the NFL’s former vice president of officiating, said the referee shouldn’t have picked up the flag and should have penalized the Cowboys for pass interference and holding on the play.
"The league did not offer an official response to Sunday’s action, though Dean Blandino, the NFL’s head of officiating, told the league-owned NFL Network that Hitchens should have been called for defensive holding. He said the pass interference infraction was “a tight judgment call” and Bryant also could have been subjected to a penalty for running onto the field. The night’s embarrassment is only made more perfect by the August video that the league’s head of officiating, Dean Blandino, was caught on camera acting like frat boy Zach Efron in “Neighbors” on the Cowboys party bus. Even though league executives were reportedly upset, Blandino was never forced to respond by the NFL. Bury the important stuff! (A Roger Goodell signature.) And Jerry Jones said he didn’t “have a problem with it at all. I don’t deem in inappropriate. Our officiating is doing a good job.” Well, that’s certainly debatable. Jerry’s son Stephen Jones, who was on the bus with Blandino, had an even better response. When asked about it a few days following the release of the video Stephen said, “You can ask me about football. Are you serious? Serious?” When questioned further, he turned and walked away. Boy, you’d hate for owners to understand the perspective of the fan." Damon Amendolara
"If that happened in Madden you would take it back to the store and demand a new copy." Kevin Clark
"I’ve never seen that in my life where they marked off the penalty yardage, then picked up the flag and remarked it. I had never seen it. Then there was no explanation.” Cowboys safety Barry Church
Tony Dungy, who spoke about the play on The Dan Patrick Show, "I have never seen a situation like that where you have the conference and then the flag gets picked up after they announce the penalty. I just don’t see how that could happen. Then the fact that you look at it on the replay and it clearly is pass interference and there’s no way it’s picked up.”. But according to Dungy, there was a non-call in the moments immediately following the play that was even more troubling than the officials' decision to pick up the pass interference flag. In reaction to the referees' initial intent to penalize the Cowboys for pass interference, wide receiver Dez Bryant ran halfway across the field protest the call ... with his helmet off. "To me, that was worse than the pass interference call," said Dungy when asked about Bryant's illegal actions. "You can debate the pass interference call, but the helmet rule is plain." Bryant, who sprinted helmet-less from the sideline and nearly reached the hash marks before barking at an official, was in clear violation. "For an official not to have the courage to call that - Dez Bryant is out on the field at the time, he's an offensive player, there's no reason he's out there other than to argue the call with no helmet on - every official should have thrown a flag at that point," said Dungy. Had the call been made in conjunction with the defensive pass interference call that was retracted, they would have been at Dallas's 14. Instead the Lions took a delay of game penalty before punting and after a 10-yard shank, the Cowboys marched downfield to score the game-winning touchdown. The pair of botched calls, which made up the turning point of the game, is totally unexplainable according to Dungy. "At the very least it's another 15-yard penalty, and there's no way you can justify not calling that."
"Monday’s forecast: It’s going to be wet and rainy and… wait… wait… Dez Bryant has rushed onto the field and says it will be sunny. And the NFL refs agree and have canceled the winter storm. Huh. That’s odd. But that’s the call. So it’s going to be sunny today, high of 45. Let’s just accept this good fortune and keep moving…” Dallas Morning News
