How was the Helmet swing not a Penalty?

[Einstein's Dog]

The lack of a penalty on the Helmet swing baffles me.  They replayed it and it seemed to me the announcers were covering it like they assumed that was going to be called.  Then things got murky, I guess the call was offsetting penalties, and the announcers dropped it quickly.

 

But when I saw that replay it looked like the little guy was deliberately swinging his helmet and it grazed someone.

 

We already had the Giants nonsense where they had what looked like 3 different guys doing personal fouls to our one and saying they offset, now this?

 

Does anyone have an explanation on what happened there?

[Buffalo716]

He also literally almost hit the official

 

I couldn't believe it was a no call... 

Edited October 27, 2023 by Buffalo716

[SoCal Deek]

He should’ve been immediately ejected, but Goodells NFL it’s a free for all. 

[Einstein's Dog]

3 minutes ago, Buffalo716 said:

He also literally almost hit the official

 

I couldn't believe it was a no call... 

I wonder if he will get fined.  He should.

 

As for the official ruling, I guess they must have swept it under "offsetting".  But it is a whole different level of offense to me.

[Big Turk]

He likely will get a fine and/or suspension for it.

Edited October 27, 2023 by Big Turk

[Warriorspikes51]

The broadcast pretended it never happened. A flag was thrown and player was going to be ejected….then nothing.  It may have resulted in better field position for us to start next drive and Allen not having a ball tipped for the int

[Einstein's Dog]

1 minute ago, SoCal Deek said:

He should’ve been immediately ejected, but Goodells NFL it’s a free for all. 

I agree, I thought he would get kicked out.  Didn't something happen like this with Cleveland.

[Don Otreply]

4 minutes ago, Einstein's Dog said:

The lack of a penalty on the Helmet swing baffles me.  They replayed it and it seemed to me the announcers were covering it like they assumed that was going to be called.  Then things got murky, I guess the call was offsetting penalties, and the announcers dropped it quickly.

 

But when I saw that replay it looked like the little guy was deliberately swinging his helmet and it grazed someone.

 

We already had the Giants nonsense where they had what looked like 3 different guys doing personal fouls to our one and saying they offset, now this?

 

Does anyone have an explanation on what happened there?

It’s the smoking man, he throttles the Bills potential at every opportunity…

[frostbitmic]

He'll get a hefty fine this week but you'd think swinging a helmet would be at minimum a penalty and should've been an ejection.

[SoCal Deek]

Just now, Einstein's Dog said:

I agree, I thought he would get kicked out.  Didn't something happen like this with Cleveland.

It might have happened anywhere. That’s the problem. The NFL has become an officiating laughing stock where everything is now open for interpretation by the referees. It long ago ruined the NBA and under Goodell is doing the same for the NFL. 

[Einstein's Dog]

1 minute ago, frostbitmic said:

He'll get a hefty fine this week but you'd think swinging a helmet would be at minimum a penalty and should've been an ejection.

Also the little guy wasn't even part of the original scrum -which was according to the announcers something T Settle was involved with.  But I couldn't see anything out of the ordinary from Setttle, but did see the Tampa guy have a personal foul type reaction.  They didn't even cover that well.

[gordong]

he not only swung it,  he hit groot in the head for the life of me I dont know how that is not an ejection if he meant to do it or not makes no difference. 

Edited October 27, 2023 by gordong

[Warriorspikes51]

Refs….” Oh nevermind it’s just the punter”

[frostbitmic]

After the whistle the Tampa  O-lineman pancaked Settle and was taking his time getting off of him. Settle decided to help him get up which upset the lineman resulting in pushing and shoving. No need for a flag on both sides there even though the Tampa player started the issue. #5 on the other hand took off his helmet and swung it at a Bills player, that should be an instant ejection.

[Einstein's Dog]

9 minutes ago, Warriorspikes51 said:

The broadcast pretended it never happened. A flag was thrown and player was going to be ejected….then nothing.  It may have resulted in better field position for us to start next drive and Allen not having a ball tipped for the int

Certainly seemed like the Broadcast just covered up for the inept non-officiating there. 

 

They weren't even able to highlight the original supposed offset - they didn't show what Settle did to get the violent reaction from the center.

 

Even with Settle/center offsetting, swinging a helmet is a different level of Personal Foul.

[RJ (not THAT RJ)]

2 minutes ago, Einstein's Dog said:

Certainly seemed like the Broadcast just covered up for the inept non-officiating there. 

 

They weren't even able to highlight the original supposed offset - they didn't show what Settle did to get the violent reaction from the center.

 

Even with Settle/center offsetting, swinging a helmet is a different level of Personal Foul.

 

The broadcast was especially terrible on explaining things like that. Even more than broadcasts these days have been terrible when it comes to discussing penalties. Al Michaels showed no interest in explaining or discussing much of anything.

[Warcodered]

Maybe after the broadcast openly called out the ***** officiating of the Chiefs O-line they got a memo about talking about bad officiating?

[DallasBillsFan1]

From a reverse angle you can see it was a Bills player that lifted the helmet off the TB player.  The punter raised his hands to the ref signaling he wasn't doing it.  That's why.

Edited October 27, 2023 by DallasBillsFan1

[WhitewalkerInPhilly]

Refs needed a backdoor cover for the oddsmakers

[dave mcbride]

Why are people complaining about this?

[Livinginthepast]

Another example of the absolute clown world of NFL officiating. The Bills player pushes the helmet facemask of the TB player back but the TB player then pulls his helmet off and whirls it at the Bill. Intent to injure right there and they pick up the flag??

 

The NFL has the most incompetent officiating of any type of football pro or college. The eye in the sky should have contacted the on field refs and set them straight, if not then , then at halftime. In either scenario, the Bucs player should have been ejected.

[PonyBoy]

1 minute ago, DallasBillsFan1 said:

From a reverse angle you can see it was a Bills player that lifted the helmet off the TB player.  The punter raised his hands to the ref signaling he wasn't doing it.  That's why.

 

I was about to post this. I still don't think it gave him the right swing it, but he definitely got a face scrub by the Bills player. Bills could have been called for unnecessary roughness. Helmet though more egregious for sure. 

[Einstein's Dog]

3 minutes ago, DallasBillsFan1 said:

From a reverse angle you can see it was a Bills player that lifted the helmet off the TB player.  The punter raised his hands to the ref signaling he wasn't doing it.  That's why.

I didn't see that.  But even so, it doesn't explain swinging it - which is the real crux of the problem.

4 minutes ago, dave mcbride said:

Why are people complaining about this?

Because to me it was a totally inexplicable non-call by the refs for something that should have helped the Bills.  It drove me nuts and the broadcast dropped it.

[PetermansRedemption]

9 minutes ago, DallasBillsFan1 said:

From a reverse angle you can see it was a Bills player that lifted the helmet off the TB player.  The punter raised his hands to the ref signaling he wasn't doing it.  That's why.

This doesn’t excuse the helmet swing though.  They didn’t need to penalize him from taking his helmet off. Swinging it on the other hand, that’s like throwing a punch. Should have been an ejection by New York even if the on field officials didn’t see it. 

[Livinginthepast]

4 minutes ago, Einstein's Dog said:

I didn't see that.  But even so, it doesn't explain swinging it - which is the real crux of the problem.

Because to me it was a totally inexplicable non-call by the refs for something that should have helped the Bills.  It drove me nuts and the broadcast dropped it.

None of the networks will go against the NFL can do no wrong narrative and that includes the incompetent officiating. Michaels might have seen the fracas but he's so old that his attention span evaporated quick. I find even Romo is now censoring himself when he sees the inept officiating , like he was warned to lay off.

[Not at the table Karlos]

14 minutes ago, DallasBillsFan1 said:

From a reverse angle you can see it was a Bills player that lifted the helmet off the TB player.  The punter raised his hands to the ref signaling he wasn't doing it.  That's why.

Do you have a link to this. I’ve watched two different angles and didn’t see what you’re describing. 

[DallasBillsFan1]

19 minutes ago, Not at the table Karlos said:

Do you have a link to this. I’ve watched two different angles and didn’t see what you’re describing. 

Chris Brown was talking about it on WGR today.  He likely has access to different angles.  I thought I saw what he was talking about.  Also, player wasn't swinging helmet as a weapon, he was moving it left to right.  If it was aggregious, the refs would have assessed the penalty.  The player did not remove his own helment and he did not use it as a weapon.

[folz]

I watched the play back a few times because I couldn't believe it wasn't called.

 

It looks like a Bills player had #5's facemark and is pulling his helmet up, so #5 takes it off himself (so the Bills player can't continue to mess with his head). But here it gets murky and open to interpretation. It sure looks like he swings it, hits one Bills player and almost a second. But, he could have just still been trying to pull his helmet back from the Bills player who still had a grasp of it (or his arm) and the contact was incidental...i.e., he didn't mean to swing it at the other players, it happened as a consequence of him trying to rip his helmet back (away from the Bills player) and when the Bills player released his grip, #5 is still pulling on it, so it swings. I assume that is how the refs saw it. But yes, in real time, it sure looked like a swing. I'm just not sure I can rule out the other possible interpretation to be too upset about it.

 

If there was any offsetting of penalties, it wouldn't have been on Settle, but on the Bills player that was grabbing #5's facemark.

[Sherlock Holmes]

1 hour ago, Buffalo716 said:

He also literally almost hit the official

 

I couldn't believe it was a no call... 

Would've been hilarious...irregardless he should've gotten the boot for hitting two of our players with it.

[boyst]

41 minutes ago, dave mcbride said:

Why are people complaining about this?

Only complaint I have is another flag thrown and picked up with little to no explanation 

[Buffalo716]

2 minutes ago, Sherlock Holmes said:

Would've been hilarious...irregardless he should've gotten the boot for hitting two of our players with it.

I don't think it would have been hilarious if he struck an official in the head with a swing helmet

 

That could kill you

[Toledo Bill]

1 hour ago, Einstein's Dog said:

I agree, I thought he would get kicked out.  Didn't something happen like this with Cleveland.

Wasn’t it Miles Garrett and wasn’t he suspended for the remainder of the year?

[Bferra13]

3 minutes ago, Toledo Bill said:

Wasn’t it Miles Garrett and wasn’t he suspended for the remainder of the year?

This was nothing like that... dude got his helmet like smashed into his face and was coming off. He took it off and whatever motion he made was weak. A big nothingburger.

[Mike in Horseheads]

1 hour ago, frostbitmic said:

He'll get a hefty fine this week but you'd think swinging a helmet would be at minimum a penalty and should've been an ejection.

I thought taking off a helmet was a automatic penalty.

[Not at the table Karlos]

35 minutes ago, DallasBillsFan1 said:

Chris Brown was talking about it on WGR today.  He likely has access to different angles.  I thought I saw what he was talking about.  Also, player wasn't swinging helmet as a weapon, he was moving it left to right.  If it was aggregious, the refs would have assessed the penalty.  The player did not remove his own helment and he did not use it as a weapon.

Chris brown has argued things that were easily proven wrong before. So I won’t take his word for it. The videos don’t really show what you’re saying. 
 

I’ve had this discussion with a few different people today and they all saw something different. One group swears Bernard has the helmet in his hands and swung it but the videos show his hands are empty. I don’t understand how everyone sees something different. A lot of oh the refs didn’t throw a flag so it didn’t happen from bucs fans and media. But there’s video showing it happen. 
 

You trust the refs to make the correct call? Seriously? Have you paid attention to the nfl in the last 10-15 years? 

[I'm Spartacus]

1 hour ago, dave mcbride said:

Why are people complaining about this?

Why not?

[msw2112]

16 minutes ago, Not at the table Karlos said:

Chris brown has argued things that were easily proven wrong before. So I won’t take his word for it. The videos don’t really show what you’re saying. 
 

I’ve had this discussion with a few different people today and they all saw something different. One group swears Bernard has the helmet in his hands and swung it but the videos show his hands are empty. I don’t understand how everyone sees something different. A lot of oh the refs didn’t throw a flag so it didn’t happen from bucs fans and media. But there’s video showing it happen. 
 

You trust the refs to make the correct call? Seriously? Have you paid attention to the nfl in the last 10-15 years? 

 

You have it right on a couple of fronts.  The fact several people saw it and all saw something different may be why the officials didn't call anything.  THEY all saw something different and couldn't come to a consensus, so they decided to let it all "offset" without calling anything and they moved on with the game.  NFL officiating is also terrible in general, and has been for a while now.

[Matt_In_NH]

The bills player started lifting the helmet off and the punter aggressively completed the removal.  It was pretty minor. Removing a helmut is not a penalty if it comes off during a play or when another player is pulling it off. 

[dave mcbride]

13 minutes ago, I'm Spartacus said:

Why not?

Fans spend WAY too much griping about calls already, and to complain about a call/non-call that actually had no bearing on an actual play? It’s tiresome. Refs neither favor nor or biased against the Bills.

[BillsFanSD]

2 hours ago, dave mcbride said:

Why are people complaining about this?

Because it's just another example of inexplicable officiating.  Did it change the outcome of the game?  No.  Was I worked up about it at the time?  No.  Was it the right call?  No.

 

It is good for officials to call a clean game and bad when they don't.