Football

Two Lions players — Decker and Skipper — approached the ref to declare Decker as an eligible receiver. Skipper says he didn’t speak. But for some reason the ref announced Skipper as the eligible receiver, not Decker.

So even if you reverse the call and give the 2-point conversion to the Lions, the Cowboys would have gotten ripped off because they were defending Skipper (who they thought was eligible) instead of Decker (who they thought was ineligible). After all, the point of declaring eligibility is so that the defense knows who’s allowed to catch the ball and who isn’t.

It seems pretty clear that the ref messed up by announcing the wrong player as eligible, but either way, as soon as he did that and then let the play run, both teams were screwed.