By Brad Biggs
ATLANTA -- The hiring of Mike Pereira as a rules analyst for the Fox network's NFL broadcasts paid immediate dividends when a controversial play proved decisive in the Bears' season opener against Detroit.
Referee Gene Steratore's crew had ruled what looked to be a 25-yard, go-ahead touchdown pass to Calvin Johnson with 24 seconds to play to be incomplete, even though the Lions wide receiver came down with both feet and then his rear end in bounds before losing the ball when he rolled over.
Pereira, from the Fox studio in Los Angeles, jumped on the broadcast and said the incompletion would be upheld on replay review. He was right and spent the next week on radio broadcasts across the country explaining the rule and his new role after retiring as the NFL's vice president of officiating.
ATLANTA -- The hiring of Mike Pereira as a rules analyst for the Fox network's NFL broadcasts paid immediate dividends when a controversial play proved decisive in the Bears' season opener against Detroit.
Referee Gene Steratore's crew had ruled what looked to be a 25-yard, go-ahead touchdown pass to Calvin Johnson with 24 seconds to play to be incomplete, even though the Lions wide receiver came down with both feet and then his rear end in bounds before losing the ball when he rolled over.
Pereira, from the Fox studio in Los Angeles, jumped on the broadcast and said the incompletion would be upheld on replay review. He was right and spent the next week on radio broadcasts across the country explaining the rule and his new role after retiring as the NFL's vice president of officiating.
It was a crucial play. Had Johnson been awarded a touchdown, the Bears
would have lost the game and they likely wouldn't be in the playoffs. The Green
Bay Packers presumably would have won the NFC North and the New York Giants would
have earned a wild-card ahead of the Bears.
"I've had a few reminders," Pereira said Sunday. "Someone also hit me on an airplane last week, informing me that if we wouldn't have called offensive pass interference against (Kellen) Winslow in the end zone at the end of the game, Tampa Bay would have been in the playoffs. I said, 'I don't work there anymore. I agree with you.' "
Pereria traveled from Atlanta to Soldier Field to be available for the Fox crew of Kenny Albert and Daryl Johnson during the network's broadcast of the Seahawks-Bears game. It's fun now for Pereira to look back on the Week 1 call, something that brought attention to his new role. Miami Herald media columnist Barry Jackson called his hiring the "best new personnel move" in the television world.
"There must not have been very many moves," Pereria joked. "I really didn't think it would be this successful. I think really the thing that makes it successful is not necessarily me, it's just a new concept that (Fox Sports Chief Executive) David Hill had. They've always put in the booth ex-players and ex-coaches and never an ex-official to kind of explain the rules side, which I think David responded to a survey that they did two years ago which talked about the fans really wanted the announcers to know the rules. So, it was kind of his brainchild to bring me in. It's worked."
Pereria said it's easier to monitor games for Fox because typically he has to watch only four games at once during the regular season. In his role with the NFL, he'd watch as many as 10 games simultaneously.
He's said the rule involving the Johnson play needs to be tweaked, but he's no longer involved with the process. It may come up with the NFL's competition committee in the offseason.
"It doesn't pass the the eye test, smell test, whatever you want to call it test," Pereira said. "It doesn't pass it. I think replay has really hurt this aspect of the game because it has taken an element of what is common sense, and the Calvin Johnson play is the play, that is a common-sense play. It leads you to believe that was a touchdown. But replay has taken everything to the literal sense of the rule, and the rule says when you're going to the ground and you hit the ground, body and ball, you gotta hold onto it.
"That's taking it away from putting it somewhat in the officials' hands to make it black and white. That's generally good, but when all of a sudden those black-and-white decisions are contrary to what everybody believes then you have to look at it, and I think they will look at it."
How could it be changed for the better?
"I am not sure," he said. "But I think the one thing I would take out is 'after,' because the rule states you have to hold onto the ball after you hit the ground. Maybe you say you have to hold onto the ball when you hit the ground."
Did the Johnson call launch his role into the living rooms of America?
"Jay Glazer actually said, 'You hit a grand slam in your first week,'" Pereira said. "The first week I hit a play for weeks that was being talked about and is still being talked about. It really did kind of identify the rule. As I look back now, I was too stupid to be nervous at the time because I wasn't worried about percentages that I was right. I said what came to me and I looked at it from the standpoint of what I would have said if I was in the office last year. "
"I've had a few reminders," Pereira said Sunday. "Someone also hit me on an airplane last week, informing me that if we wouldn't have called offensive pass interference against (Kellen) Winslow in the end zone at the end of the game, Tampa Bay would have been in the playoffs. I said, 'I don't work there anymore. I agree with you.' "
Pereria traveled from Atlanta to Soldier Field to be available for the Fox crew of Kenny Albert and Daryl Johnson during the network's broadcast of the Seahawks-Bears game. It's fun now for Pereira to look back on the Week 1 call, something that brought attention to his new role. Miami Herald media columnist Barry Jackson called his hiring the "best new personnel move" in the television world.
"There must not have been very many moves," Pereria joked. "I really didn't think it would be this successful. I think really the thing that makes it successful is not necessarily me, it's just a new concept that (Fox Sports Chief Executive) David Hill had. They've always put in the booth ex-players and ex-coaches and never an ex-official to kind of explain the rules side, which I think David responded to a survey that they did two years ago which talked about the fans really wanted the announcers to know the rules. So, it was kind of his brainchild to bring me in. It's worked."
Pereria said it's easier to monitor games for Fox because typically he has to watch only four games at once during the regular season. In his role with the NFL, he'd watch as many as 10 games simultaneously.
He's said the rule involving the Johnson play needs to be tweaked, but he's no longer involved with the process. It may come up with the NFL's competition committee in the offseason.
"It doesn't pass the the eye test, smell test, whatever you want to call it test," Pereira said. "It doesn't pass it. I think replay has really hurt this aspect of the game because it has taken an element of what is common sense, and the Calvin Johnson play is the play, that is a common-sense play. It leads you to believe that was a touchdown. But replay has taken everything to the literal sense of the rule, and the rule says when you're going to the ground and you hit the ground, body and ball, you gotta hold onto it.
"That's taking it away from putting it somewhat in the officials' hands to make it black and white. That's generally good, but when all of a sudden those black-and-white decisions are contrary to what everybody believes then you have to look at it, and I think they will look at it."
How could it be changed for the better?
"I am not sure," he said. "But I think the one thing I would take out is 'after,' because the rule states you have to hold onto the ball after you hit the ground. Maybe you say you have to hold onto the ball when you hit the ground."
Did the Johnson call launch his role into the living rooms of America?
"Jay Glazer actually said, 'You hit a grand slam in your first week,'" Pereira said. "The first week I hit a play for weeks that was being talked about and is still being talked about. It really did kind of identify the rule. As I look back now, I was too stupid to be nervous at the time because I wasn't worried about percentages that I was right. I said what came to me and I looked at it from the standpoint of what I would have said if I was in the office last year. "
I'm a Bears fan and that WAS a catch Johnson made against the Bears with 21 seconds left in regulation!