WATCH: Referee takes epic fall during Tony Pollard kick return touchdown
It’s not easy being a referee in the National Football League when the entire nation is at home watching games during Thanksgiving. It’s even harder when you’re trying to run down the sideline and you trip over a misplaced pylon.
Check out this epic video of a referee tripping over the pylon on the sideline in the Cowboys-Vikings game tonight as Tony Pollard was returning the kick back.
There’s no question that no matter what happens the rest of the day for the NFL games, that referee is the star of the show. It will go down as one of the greatest football bloopers of all-time. After he falls down, the look on the ref’s face is priceless as he stares down the chain gang.
The ref was so locked in on watching Tony Pollard make the house call that he didn’t even bother to look in front of him and BOOM! Down he went.
Tony Pollard of the Cowboys ended up returning the kick back for a touchdown and cutting the Las Vegas score to 24-19 with 7:00 remaining in the third quarter. The game is still going on.
The kick return for a touchdown by Pollard was the first on Thanksgiving Day since Brad Smith did it for the New York Jets in 2010. He did it with one shoe.
Not only are the referees struggling to stay upright in the Cowboys-Raiders game tonight, but they’ve also made some controversial roughing the passer calls, one that even got Las Vegas quarterback Derek Carr laughing.
Former NFL referee weighs in on overturned Cowboys fumble recovery
It wasn’t the first time the officials made a questionable call in this game. In the first quarter, Raiders tight end Darren Waller appeared to fumble the ball and Cowboys safety Keanu Neal made an acrobatic play to keep it in bounds.
But the officials met to discuss whether or not Waller completed the catch. They ruled he didn’t, meaning possession stayed with Las Vegas.
Terry McAulay tweeted he thought the call should’ve stayed a fumble.
“This appears to be another example of using Replay Assist to change the ruling on the field when it is not clear and obvious that the ruling on the field was incorrect,” McAulay tweeted. “The receiver gets control, 2 feet down, and then turns upfield. That was the original ruling on the field.”
Dallas and Las Vegas are currently facing off on CBS.
On3’s Nick Schultz also contributed to this report.