Referees Admit Multiple Mistakes in Vikings – 49ers Game

Beside the botched call on the opening kickoff of the game between the Minnesota Vikings and San Francisco 49ers, some questionable referee decisions were made regarding Jim Harbaugh and his use of time outs and play challenges.

Vikings fans and players watched in anger, wondering why Coach Harbaugh was being allowed to use time outs and challenges the 49ers supposedly didn't have. After the game, referee Ken Roan commented on the timeout situation, first offering an explanation of the situation; saying:

He was trying to conserve time. What he was doing was calling a timeout immediately after the play was over, not knowing what the result of the play was, whether it was a challengeable play or whether it was not a challengeable play. He called a timeout immediately after the play was over. Then he realized that, ‘Hey, it was something that I want to challenge, but I just used my last timeout. Can I challenge and get my timeout back? How does that work?’ He asked the guys on the side and they came over to get me. I told him, ‘You challenged it not knowing what the result was going to be’, so I granted him the challenge so we went and looked at it. That was wrong and I should not have. In order to do that he has to have two timeouts left.

Roan admitted that he made an error in his interpretation of the rules, and also admitted that he made the made the mistake on two back-to-back occurrences.

This blunder is another in the growing list of issues fans, players, and coaches are pointing to as they make the argument the replacement referees aren't on the same level as those on strike.