Aaron Rodgers scorches Big Ten officials for overturning Cooper DeJean’s punt return touchdown
Try as they might, Big Ten coordinator of officiating Bill Carollo and NCAA rules editor Steve Shaw didn’t convince Hawkeye fans that they got the invalid fair catch ruling right with their Monday explanation.
That duo joined the Des Moines Register’s Chad Leistikow to explain why Cooper DeJean’s apparent go-ahead, 54-yard punt return touchdown versus Minnesota was wiped out upon review.
Their explanation didn’t pass the smell test for Iowa fans. Interestingly enough, it didn’t pass the smell test for Super Bowl-winning quarterback Aaron Rodgers either.
The former longtime Green Bay Packers quarterback and now New York Jets signal-caller sounded off on his irritation with the invalid fair catch ruling in his Tuesday appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show.”
“That was the most ridiculous call that I saw all last week. This is so ridiculous. Nothing about this says fair catch. Absolutely nothing about this. The ball is on the ground. He’s pointing at it for his gunners to get out of the way. And then, all they were looking at was, did he step out, correct, with the review?
“And then they’re gonna go back and wave this thing off? Absolutely ridiculous call. Classic of them to double down and say, ‘Yep, totally a fair catch.’ Nothing about that had fair catch energy. Absolutely nothing. I feel terrible for the kid, gutted for him, for Iowa fans. That’s awful,” Rodgers said.
"That fair catch call in Iowa was the most ridiculous call I've seen in quite some time..
Nothing about this says fair catch and I feel terrible for Iowa fans" ~ @AaronRodgers12 #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/zTPrUPQGk7
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) October 24, 2023
Host Pat McAfee pointed out that none of the players on the field for Minnesota slowed up as if a fair catch had been signaled. Rodgers noted nobody on the Minnesota sideline did either.
“I would add to it and say, is there anybody on the sidelines there — because he caught the ball on the Minnesota sideline — is there anybody on the sideline pointing, as if it’s like, ‘Oh, he called for a fair catch!’ Nobody’s pointing, nobody’s going crazy.
“I didn’t see the game, I just saw kind of that last highlight — that lowlight for Iowa fans — but that sequence there, were there coaches on the Minnesota side who were making fair catch gestures? No, nobody thought about it for a second. There’s one person in the entire place, or the replay official who was like, ‘Hey, let me consult Page 72 here, Item A says if …’ No. Nobody thought that that had anything to do with a fair catch, because it didn’t,” Rodgers said.
Does it suddenly make Iowa’s record 7-1 after Rodgers and McAfee’s endorsements that the Hawkeyes were hosed? No, it doesn’t.
But, in some small way, it feels nice to hear voices of reason taking up for Iowa on a national sports platform.
Contact/Follow us @HawkeyesWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Iowa news, notes, and opinions.
Follow Josh on Twitter: @JoshOnREF
We occasionally recommend interesting products and services. If you make a purchase by clicking one of the links, we may earn an affiliate fee. Hawkeyes Wire operates independently, though, and this doesn’t influence our coverage.
