'Did You Pray For Better Officiating?': Rod Wood Slams NFL

Rod Wood shares reaction to officiating error in loss to Dallas Cowboys.

The Detroit Lions were one of the biggest stories in the NFL during the 2023 season for several reasons. One of which captivated a national audience when an officiating error cost the team a win at Dallas in late December. 

In a loss to Dallas on a Saturday night, Dan Skipper and Taylor Decker were at the center. A mix-up as to which lineman reported as an eligible receiver led to an eventual illegal touching penalty and the Lions ultimately failing to convert a game-winning two-point conversion attempt. 

At his media availability during the NFL’s annual meeting, team president Rod Wood once again lamented the officiating error. 

Wood explained that he tried to contact NFL Executive VP of Football Operations Troy Vincent the following day, a Sunday, but that Vincent was initially unable to connect with him while at church. 

"In terms of the process, you’re really not allowed to talk to the league until 9 a.m. the day following the game," Wood said, via the team's social media channel. "So I sent a text to Troy Vincent and said, 'I’ll be calling you at 9 a.m., you know what the topic is.' And I called him at 9 a.m. He was in church, so he called me back at 10, and I asked if he prayed for better officiating. Which he said he always does."

Though frustrated by the outcome of the situation, the Lions were not ultimately deterred. They reeled off a win the following week in the regular season finale, then put together two more en route to an appearance in the NFC Championship game.

Still, the miscommunication served as a frustrating point for the organization. For starters, a Lions victory that night could've vaulted them into a higher seed.

"There was a legitimate difference of opinion as to who said what and who heard what," Wood said. "And so the resolution is really that you log your complaint and they promise to do better. There’s really nothing you can do to change it, but I didn’t want Dan or anybody else to have to worry about it. They got another game to get ready for. It would have been nice to have had a chance to see if we could win that game. The 2-point play didn’t win the game. They still had (23) seconds. They had a timeout, they could have kicked a field goal, but it would have been nice to see if we could have stopped them because we might have been playing San Francisco in Detroit for the chance to go to the Super Bowl."