Nothing is certain anymore in the National Football League

It’s nice to think that there are specific certainties in life one can count on, so it’s a little disconcerting when something you thought you knew for certain, turns out to be questionable.

Make sense? Neither did Sunday’s non-flag call late in the fourth quarter of the Dallas-Detroit NFL wildcard game.

I consider myself something of a football expert. I played the game when young and have watched so many games and listened to so many former players, coaches and analysts that if that doesn’t make me an expert, well then it’s their fault.

So watching Dallas linebacker Anthony Hitchens faceguard/push Detroit tight end Brandon Pettigrew on a third down pass play, getting hit in the back with the ball, I figured the flag thrown for pass interference was a no-brainer. I’d seen it thousands (that’s not an exaggeration when you factor in college and high school football) of times before, and every time it was a flag against the defense.

And then my world was turned upside down, as was every Detroit Lions’ fans world eventually. The officials, an “All-Star” crew versus one that had worked together all season, picked up the flag, said there was no foul on the play and it was fourth and 1 Detroit.

Instead of a first down inside the Cowboys 30 yard line, the Lions, who were leading at the time 20-17, punted and Dallas drove for what proved to be the winning touchdown. Did the call change the outcome of the game? Hard to prove, but according to ESPN.com writer Kevin Seifert, who cited data from ESPN Stats and Information, it reduced the Lions chances of winning from 78 percent to 66 percent. And as we all saw, those percentages dropped to nil.

On a side note, I have firmly come to believe that stats are their own dimension equal to height, width, depth and time. Stats can change reality in many ways.

But, let’s get back to the non-flag call/non-call. In Seifert’s piece, he actually lists four fouls taking place. The first is Hutchins pulling Pettigrew’s jersey in such an obvious manner it’s a credit to jersey makers everywhere that it didn’t shred and come apart.

That’s defensive holding, a foul called 347 times this season.

Second, Pettigrew stuck his hands on Hutchins’ facemask, also a foul, likely of the 5-yard variety. Third, Hutchins made contact with Pettigrew in such a manner as to knock him to the ground, and according to the NFL’s rules “contact by a player who is not playing the ball that restricts the opponent’s ability to make the catch” is pass interference.

The fourth foul came after Cowboys’ wide receiver Dez Bryant rushed off the sidelines onto the field without his helmet to protest the apparent pass interference call. Rules prohibit players in the field of play from removing the helmets in such instances, but really say nothing about a player coming off the sidelines without a helmet on, so this is debatable.

But any review of the play shows infractions 1-3 as not debatable, unless you’re an NFL official, or Dean Blandino, head of officials. Blandino has said the officials missed the holding call, but that the pass interference call could have gone either way, siding with head linesman Jerry Bergman, who convinced the other officials it was face guarding, which is legal in the NFL.

That’s another certainty of mine dashed to smithereens. I would swear on a stack of AP Stylebooks that I’ve seen similar NFL “face guarding” plays called as defensive pass interference.

But, them’s the breaks. Dallas advances to play Green Bay in the divisional round this weekend while Detroit’s season is done. So far, everyone in that Michigan city seems to be taking it with a grain of salt as the players and coaches haven’t voiced any vehement criticism that I’ve read and at last check the city was still standing.

As fans, and ultimately those who pay for this fine game of football to be played, we are owed some sense of continuity, of certainty in the quality of the product being presented. Sunday’s non-call tarnishes that.

But on the other hand, it’s likely to spawn a host of conspiracy theories, and there’s nothing we like more, than a conspiracy.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].