Add Buffalo Bills owner Terry Pegula to the long list of people perplexed by the NFL's catch rule.
The latest mindboggling overturn of a catch came Sunday in the Bills loss to the New England Patriots. NFL Senior VP of Officiating Al Riveron overruled the call of a Kelvin Benjamin touchdown reception, wiping out a potential Buffalo halftime lead.
The reversal of the call was based on what most viewed as questionable evidence that Benjamin didn't get two feet down before securing the catch.
Pegula, who also owns the NHL Buffalo Sabres, blasted the call on the hockey team's produced radio program Tuesday.
"They obviously weren't looking at the same television the rest of the country was looking at, were they?" Pegula said, via ESPN's Mike Rodak. "You know what, you can probably find somebody in this country that disagrees with the catch], and I know one guy would be Al Riveron sitting in New York City. But everybody I talked to -- and they're not [Bills fans and they're not necessarily anti-Patriots -- they're all baffled by that call, which just wasn't consistent with what replay [should be]."
Bills coach Sean McDermott stood by Pegula's comments.
"I support Terry Pegula and his statements that were made about Kelvin Benjamin's play," McDermott said during a press conference Tuesday afternoon. "I have spoken with the league about this issue and I'm still at a loss."
Much of the outrage this season has stemmed from the belief that the centralized replay office has re-officiated the on-field calls instead of sticking with an 'incontrovertible evidence' standard in overturning calls.
Pegula became the latest voice proclaiming the catch rule is something the NFL needs to address this offseason.
"I don't know what's going on, but we have to fix it," he said. "And I'm not saying that as the owner of the Bills, I'm saying that as a football fan. We can't have stuff like this happening in our league."
Pegula added he expects to hear from the league about his criticism of the Benjamin call.
"I can tell you this, since we've had this discussion, I'm sure I'll be having another conversation with somebody," he said. "If it's unfriendly from the other side, I can dish back on unfriendly too, because it's a little upsetting."
