Seahawks
NFL admits officials made mistake with game clock

By Jose Miguel Romero
Seattle Times staff reporter

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Mike Pereira, the league's director of officiating, issued a statement to the Seahawks explaining what he described as "an administrative error by the officiating crew," with specific mention of referee Tom White.

The incident in question occurred late in the fourth quarter. With 1:03 left, Seahawks running back Shaun Alexander ran for three yards from the Baltimore 36-yard line. Just before the run, the Seahawks sent reserve tackle Floyd Womack into the game as an eligible receiver to have an extra lineman to block.

Officials threw a flag after Alexander's run and called the Seahawks for an illegal substitution, stopping the clock at 58 seconds. The Ravens had also tried to call their third and final timeout but were not charged with it because, the statement reads, "the administrative stoppage of the clock for the penalty flag supersedes a request for a time out."

Now comes the controversy: The officials waved off the penalty when a conference among themselves produced the fact that Womack had indeed properly reported as an eligible receiver. At that point, White, by league rule, should have re-set the play clock to 40 seconds and then immediately started the game clock. That would have allowed the Seahawks to run their next play after Baltimore would have been forced to spend the time out, and if they had failed to gain a first down and decided to go for it on fourth down, they could do so with about 20 seconds to play.

Even a stop by the Ravens, which would stop the clock on change of possession, would not have given them the ball on offense until about 12 or 13 seconds remained. And the Ravens would have had to get to within field goal range without time outs in that time span, which was the exact situation Seahawks head coach Mike Holmgren was playing for as his time was trying to protect a 41-38 lead.

No official at the game, either on the field or in the review booth, recognized the error immediately, and the Seahawks initially thought the Ravens had been granted their final time out on the play. But Pereira's staff watches all of the games of the day from league offices, and looked into the incident when the Seahawks called his office after the game to ask what had happened.

The final score cannot be overturned, nor the game replayed, and all that can happen in the end is official acknowledgment of an error.

Copyright © 2003 The Seattle Times Company