On Sunday afternoon, a controversial replay review took a touchdown away from the Minnesota Vikings at a crucial time late in the fourth quarter of the game. Now, the league has broken its silence, defending that decision.
The play in question occurred with 2:58 remaining in Sunday afternoon’s showdown between the Minnesota Vikings and the Philadelphia Eagles when Vikings tight end T.J. Hockenson appeared to catch a touchdown pass. However, the touchdown was taken away when a replay by the league offices in New York determined that Hockenson did not maintain possession of the ball.
This call proved consequential as it led to more than one minute of additional time coming off the clock before Minnesota scored another field goal, and the Vikings never got the ball back, losing the game 28-22.
On Sunday afternoon, NFL vice president of instant replay Mark Butterworth defended the decision to overturn the call, saying that the league had clear and obvious evidence that Hockenson lost possession of the ball.
“The ruling on the field was a touchdown,” Butterworth said, “so it’s replay’s jurisdiction to stop the game. We used broadcast-enhanced shots to show that as he was going to the ground — he needs control of the ball throughout the process of the catch — he lost control of the ball. The ball hit the ground. Then, he regained control of the ball. So therefore, we overturned it to an incomplete pass.”
During his postgame press conference, Hockenson was vocally frustrated about the league’s decision to overturn the touchdown catch, calling the move “ridiculous.”
“There was nothing to overturn it,” Hockenson said after the game, according to Kevin Seifert of [ESPN](https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/46652755/vikings-tj-hockenson-ridiculous-td-was-overturned). “I mean, I was out there. I felt it. Hands under the ball; snag it; and I don’t understand. I don’t basically understand the catch rule at this point. . . . I don’t understand how New York can call in and just be like, ‘Yeah, that’s not a catch,’ when there was no evidence that it wasn’t. I mean, I had it. I think it’s ridiculous.”
The Vikings will have to bounce back quickly as the team is set to take on the Los Angeles Chargers on Thursday night.