Is NBC to Blame for Reid Not Challenging Interception?

NBC has reportedly taken responsibility for Eagles coach Andy Reid committing his latest in-game flop.

It seems that during the Eagles' 35-31 loss in Atlanta on Sunday Night Football that NBC didn’t supply the Eagles with a timely replay showing Falcons CB Kelvin Hayden’s third-quarter “interception” of Michael Vick.

The reason for the quotes around “interception” is because replays showed that Hayden appeared to clearly play the ball off a bounce on the Georgia Dome turf. The problem was that the clear replay wasn't shown until about six minutes after the play. The three immediate replays were inconclusive.

Reid, who rarely challenges but actually won a challenge earlier in the game, told reporters Monday that NBC admitted their wrong.

“Well there was no replay for us to look at, and I actually had the people from the broadcast apologize, send me an e-mail and apologize on that, but listen, that’s hindsight now.

“...There were so many other things that we need to do better, so that’s one of a few here.”

In no way does it appear the lack of a good replay was intentional. Sunday Night Football (part of the NBC Universal family) producer Fred Gaudelli released a statement Monday explaining what happened:

“Unfortunately, it’s somewhat the nature of the replay system. Time just ran out. There were 40 seconds in between the interception and the next play from scrimmage. We were quickly able to show three replays during that span. We didn’t have the fourth and conclusive replay until after the Falcons took possession. Even though it could no longer be used for a challenge, we showed that replay because it's our job to get it right. After the game I emailed the team because I felt bad that the conclusive play wasn’t immediately available.”

It's worth noting that since he took over as the Birds' head coach, the Eagles have challenged the fewest times in the NFL.

Reid later described how the Eagles handle the whole replay process:

“Well, if I have a good angle on it I’ll make that call. And if I get the support from somebody seeing a replay of it, then I’ll take that. We’ve had a couple cases – I mentioned the one last year against the Giants up there, there was no replay, and this one here, there was no replay. And I didn’t have a great view of either one; this situation was a little different with the timeouts as opposed to where we were sitting with the Giants. But both of those we didn’t have an opportunity to see, and I appreciate them apologizing for that. It was one of those things where you have to live with it, man. It’s hindsight. So I’m not going to do anything about it now, there’s nothing you can do. And I’m big that you had 61 snaps or 60 snaps, few more on the offensive side, so you had other opportunities to take care of business, and that’s just one of the things that happened. There are many things that are in our hands that we can do better, and so we’re not making any excuses for replay or any of this other stuff.”

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