An NFL officiating crew was so bad in Week 7, it appeared they had the opportunity to officiate a nationally televised game.
The officiating crew led by Alex Moore was originally assigned to referee Sunday’s game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Commanders. However, according to Football Zebras, the crew was abruptly removed from Thursday’s game and reassigned to a Sunday afternoon game between the New England Patriots and Miami Dolphins.
Moore’s crew was the same one on duty for last Sunday’s game between the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions. The crew’s performance drew widespread criticism as they threw several questionable flags against Green Bay in what proved to be a 20-17 Lions win.
A move like this is rare, but not unprecedented. This is, however, almost certainly not a coincidence. The league apparently didn’t want Moore and his staff to be a potential topic of discussion on one of its primetime broadcasts and quietly opted to move them to a less visible game instead.
Instead, Shawn Hochuli’s staff will take over Sunday night’s game after initially being assigned to the Patriots-Dolphins matchup.