Referee Clete Blakeman talked to Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and other players and coaches during Sunday’s AFC Championship. Blakeman did not talk to reporters after the game. No one else from the NFL’s officiating function spoke to the media, either.
Per the league, there was no officiating pool report after the 32-29 win by the Chiefs over the Bills.
The referee (or someone from the NFL’s replay function) isn’t automatically available to reporters after each game. One or more of the reporters covering the game in person must make the request.
In this case, none of the reporters covering the game in person activated the pool-report option for an official explanation as to the questionable spot and complicated replay-review process for the fourth-quarter fourth-and-short by the Bills that came up short.
There has to be a better way to ensure that the referee or someone else has to answer questions in the immediate aftermath of a game including a questionable call. Ideally, the referee would be available after every game, without request.
Unless and until the NFL makes the referee available after every game without request, the challenge for the reporters covering the game is to make sure at least one of them will ask for a pool report if a pool report is needed. It needs to be planned before each game.
“Who’s asking for the pool report, if we need one?”
It’s that simple, and it simply didn’t happen last night.
As a result, the audience was deprived of a fresh, real-time, no-time-for-spin explanation of what happened.
Meanwhile, a pool report happened after the Commanders-Eagles game, regarding the repeated encroachment fouls and the threat of the officials awarding a touchdown for a “palpably unfair act.” It happened there because someone thought to ask for it.
If only that person had been covering the AFC Championship instead.