Dick Vermeil On Eagles-Lions: 'Poorest Officiated Game In 10 Years'
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- First 74-year-old voice of the Eagles Merrill Reese said it. Then, his broadcasting partner and ex-Eagles Pro Bowl receiver Mike Quick seconded it.
Related: Celebrating 40 Years Of Merrill Reese
Finally, former Eagles legendary Dick Vermeil agreed with Reese and his 1982 first-round draft pick.
Sunday's Eagles game was one of the worst officiated games ever.
"Carol and I sit and watch the Sunday games for the last 10 years -- I've been retired," Vermeil told Angelo Cataldi and the 94WIP Morning Show on Friday. "That's the poorest officiated game I've seen."
Listen: Dick Vermeil on the 94WIP Morning Show
Vermeil, 79, admitted he would have gotten fined for complaining to the league if he was in Doug Pederson's shoes.
"I would keep re-living those things then I'd re-live the poor officiating," Vermeil said of the Eagles 24-23 loss to the Lions. "I would be on the phone complaining. I would probably would have gotten fined. [Former Eagles owner] Leonard Tose used to pay my fines and finally the commissioner got a hold of me and said, 'No more fines being paid by your owner. They've gotta come out of your pocket.'"
Even during the game, Vermeil says he would have been irate.
"Poorly," Vermeil said when asked how he would have handled the officiating. "And I did. It really is a negative. It was part of my faults, which I had many when I was coaching here, but I'd get too involved with those bad calls. I can still think of calls that cost us football games, that later cost us in playoff rankings."
Vermeil -- who knows the veteran official Pete Morelli and thinks he's normally good -- says it wasn't necessarily the calls his crew made, but the calls they missed that may have cost the Eagles.
"It's not only what they called, it's what they didn't call," said Vermeil. "There were a few very successful plays by Detroit in that first half that should have been called back because there was holding. But it wasn't. I think Coach Pederson and the staff and the team have moved on from reading the paper."
