Maybe to put this a way that won’t make everyone mad.
“NFL tells teams players to not try and confuse things when reporting eligible.”
They tried to get cute and send 3 people for 1 person reporting. They succeeded in causing confusion just as they planned it just happened to be the ref that ended up confused.
Yeah, but a lot of that goes out the window when you realize coaches tell refs they are going to do that in the pre-game. Detroit did have two guys report, and they were right next to the ref. The guy the ref thought reported was running towards them, but wasn’t close. The guy that wasn’t reporting, and played tackle, is the one the ref deemed reported eligible.
There isn’t any way around it, either the ref screwed up on a monumental level or it was intentional.
To be fair, this isn’t a new thing. Generally teams do their best to not telegraph their plays.
You’re not allowed to try to be deceptive with who’s eligible any more. They made it a point after teams abused it too many times in too many ways.
The deception is supposed to be about the fact that usually you do that to block, not hiding who’s eligible from the defense. The defense is entitled to know before you align.
