{"id":3546,"date":"2026-01-18T22:43:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T14:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/18\/sean-mcdermott-in-an-unusual-pool-report-says-the-blocking-decision-was-wrong\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T23:00:27","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T15:00:27","slug":"sean-mcdermott-in-an-unusual-pool-report-says-the-blocking-decision-was-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/18\/sean-mcdermott-in-an-unusual-pool-report-says-the-blocking-decision-was-wrong\/","title":{"rendered":"Sean McDermott, in an unusual pool report, says the blocking decision was wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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In his usual postgame press conference, Bills coach Sean McDermott expressed concern<\/span> about the process used to support the crucial overtime decision that could decide the playoff game between Buffalo and Denver. Then, something strange happened.<\/p>\n

McDermott had a lot to say. Specifically, McDermott called the team’s Jay Skurski Buffalo Stories<\/i> from the team plane. Here’s the full transcript of the unusual coach’s pool report, as relayed to PFT by Skurski.<\/p>\n

“That play isn’t even close. That’s a catch all the way. I sat in my locker and watched it probably 20 times, and nobody can tell me that that ball wasn’t caught and I own Buffalo. I just don’t know how the NFL gave it, especially, the way they did. I think the players and the fans deserve an explanation, you know?”<\/p>\n

“That play isn’t even close. That’s a catch all the way. I sat in my locker and watched it probably 20 times, and nobody can tell me that that ball wasn’t caught and I own Buffalo. I just don’t know how the NFL gave it, especially, the way they did. I think the players and the fans deserve an explanation, you know?”<\/p>\n

Question: “Did you read the pool report?”<\/p>\n

“Yes, [Bills P.R. chief Derek Boyko] send it to me. I just got it. I wish I had received it before the press conference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Question: “Can anyone help you here? What can you do?”<\/p>\n

“Here’s the deal, right? The fans deserve more. The players certainly deserve more. They deserve an explanation, and it’s a shame that the game is decided on a call like that, and there’s no time spent with the big manager walking under the hood or on the playing field, right? To the fans. I don’t understand how that works. I don’t understand how it’s possible for a game to be so close where someone plays when the game is so close? that is the best way to decide such a game.<\/p>\n

Question: “You’re always cautious about commenting on management. Why do you feel in this situation that it’s so important to tell how you feel about it?”<\/p>\n

“Because I only speak when something is wrong. This time it happened to our team. We win with class and we lose with class in Buffalo. It’s how we run our business, but when I look at the replay myself and I’m objective and say, ‘you can’t convince me that it wasn’t a catch, Buffalo possession, the ball you can’t convince. [me].’ I speak because I feel strongly that that was a catch and that the ball should be Buffalo. I cannot agree with their assessment of the exchange of goods whatever the statement was. I can’t agree to that. We can’t just sit here and take it, that’s what I’m saying. We will not sit here and take it. It pissed me off, and I feel strong as I look at it and review it in my closet that it’s catch, Buffalo, and that the process should have been [long pause] … treated differently. I don’t understand why the executive in this game doesn’t get a chance to watch this thing that the people of New York rule with.”<\/p>\n

McDermott may or may not be accurate about his description of the game itself. (Below the NFL standard he applied and defended<\/span> overturning the same result as Aaron Rodgers’ catch in the Steelers-Ravens regular season game, McDermott is absolutely right.) The broader question \u2014 especially in an age of legalized, mainstream, and highly monetized gambling \u2014 is whether there should have been a more deliberate and transparent process to review such an important game.<\/p>\n

Apparently, there was an accelerated review. It is not a full and official review. (There is no mention in the NFL’s official game book anywhere <\/i>game review.) Given that neither the replay assistant nor the league office can make a quick review, it’s impossible to know who made such an important decision, unless the NFL tells us.<\/p>\n

It goes back to the basic design of the current revision process. The goal, more than a decade ago, was to ensure consistency in the application of rules and standards by taking the final word from the referees and centralizing it in New York. And if NFL VP of instant replay Mark Butterworth – who explained Rodgers’ decision<\/span> \u2014 could he handle a full review of the question of whether Bills receiver Brandin Cooks caught the ball and was down with contact before it went out and was intercepted by Broncos cornerback Ja’Quan McMillian, would Butterworth have used the same level of reasoning he used in the Steelers-Ravens game? Would Butterworth have done the pool report after the game, instead of referee Carl Cheffers? Would Butterworth have argued against Rodgers’ performance?<\/p>\n

The cooks should not have handled it official post-game pool report<\/span>because the cooks did not make or review the call. Whoever decided the call was correct should have explained it \u2014 and, well, should have explained why and how the standard changed from December 7 (the day of the Week 14 Steelers-Ravens game) to January 17.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In his usual postgame press conference, Bills coach Sean McDermott expressed concern about the process used to support the crucial overtime decision that could decide the playoff game between Buffalo and Denver. Then, something strange happened. McDermott had a lot to say. Specifically, McDermott called the team’s Jay Skurski Buffalo Stories from the team plane. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3547,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3546"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3548,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3546\/revisions\/3548"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}