Ex-Patriots Star Questions Roger Goodell’s Officiating Comments

Count Dont’a Hightower among those who don’t share Roger Goodell’s stance that NFL officiating has never been better.

One day after Goodell forcefully defended the performance of the league’s officials during his annual Super Bowl week news conference, Hightower questioned the validity of those comments.

“They got robots for delivering pizzas…” the former New England Patriots linebacker tweeted, an apparent nod to the argument for automated referees.

Despite the commissioner’s argument to the contrary, questionable officiating decisions were rampant in the NFL this season. Hightower’s old team was burned more than once, most notably on Hunter Henry’s disallowed touchdown in Minnesota and Keelan Cole’s controversial game-tying score in Las Vegas.

Many other fanbases came out of the season with similar gripes, and several prominent NFL figures have spoken out on the subject, including Mike Vrabel, Tony Dungy and Aaron Rodgers. The AFC Championship Game featured a bizarre third-down do-over that left Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor apoplectic on the sideline.

Goodell brushed off that high-profile, highly unusual sequence as something that “happens frequently in our game,” saying Ron Torbert’s AFC title game crew handled it “appropriately.”

“I think for us, when you look at officiating, I don’t think it’s ever been better in the league,” Goodell said. “… We may not agree with every TV announcer or every officiating expert, but we think our officials are doing a great job.”

Let’s hope that’s true when the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles square off this Sunday in Super Bowl LVII.