Chiefs: Jerry Jones says muffed punt should have been upheld

Whether to expand instant replay or not remains a hot topic in the NFL on the heels of questionable calls during both the AFC Championship and NFC Championship on Sunday.

The AFC Championship saw a muffed punt by New England Patriots returner Julian Edelman that had been ruled a fumble on the field overturned without what appeared to be conclusive evidence.

The NFC Championship saw a no-call on what clearly should have been a pass interference penalty on the Los Angeles Rams.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones weighed in on the subject at the Senior Bowl this week, and he still seemed confused how the muffed punt was overturned in the AFC game.

“The call on the punt, whether he touched it — you can never get it right, because it was called on the field as a touch and then later, you couldn’t see an angle that he definitely touched it,” Jones said. “But the rule says you’re supposed to go with the call on the field if you can’t see an angle that he didn’t touch it. I don’t know if you can get everything [right].”

The Chiefs got the ball back two plays later on an interception, however, 41 seconds were taken off the clock in that span. Those could have been critical seconds for the Chiefs on their final drive where they may have been able to run a couple more plays to try and score a game-winning touchdown, instead of settling for a game-tying field goal at the end of regulation.

Of course, the AFC Championship Game brought up an entirely different controversy as to whether the NFL needs to revamp its overtime rules after the Patriots won the coin toss and won the game without Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes getting a chance to touch the ball.

The Cowboys have lived with their own share of questionable calls. The two most prominent may be the Dez Bryant catch/ no catch in the 2014 playoffs, and a no-call on a pass interference by Deion Sanders on Michael Irvin in the 1994 NFC Championship.

But that’s part of the game. Jones doesn’t want replay to expand to officiating, and neither does his son Stephen Jones.

“At the end of the day, it’s the official’s call and you live with that,” Jerry Jones said. “You depend on the integrity of the official, not necessarily his ability to make every call right or wrong. You assume that, and rightfully so, that there are no biases and he’s just trying to make the right call. That’s part of sport.”

Added Stephen Jones, a member of the NFL’s competition committee: “It’s certainly a challenge because there is human error. You don’t want to officiate from replay all parts of the game. I don’t think that, at the end of the day, is good for the game. So, we’ve got a lot of work to do here in the offseason and we’ll certainly look at the full body of work this year and see what the things that we should focus on.”