Referee Adrian Hill Explains Roughing-the-Passer Penalty

Tracy Walker's penalty against Kirk Cousins is explained.

Referree Adrian Hill addressed the controversial "roughing-the-passer" penalty call made against Detroit Lions safety Tracy Walker.

The head referee is available to one pool reporter after each NFL game to discuss the application of the rules in a given contest.

Well, there were certainly questions Sunday, following Detroit's 37-35 loss to the Vikings in its season finale. 

Here is the Q&A that pool reporter Paula Pasche had with Hill following the game on Sunday.

Question: On the roughing-the-passer penalty called on Detroit’s Tracy Walker early in the fourth quarter, what made that a roughing-the-passer penalty?

Hill: “By rule, one of the categories for roughing-the-passer is full body weight, where the tackler lands with his full body weight on the quarterback. That’s the category this play fell into.”

Question: It kind of looked like the defender grabbed the quarterback and his momentum rolled him off. But, is that not what you saw?

Hill: “The momentum doesn’t play a role, and the rolling off afterwards does not play a role. It’s that initial contact to the ground. If you roll off afterwards, that doesn’t eliminate the foul.”

Question: What could the defender have done differently?

Hill: “A lot of the techniques that defensive coaches are teaching include kind of a barrel roll, where you grab the player to the side and you take him down to your side and roll, rather than coming down with your full body weight.”

Question: So, it was a clear-cut penalty to you?

Hill: “Yes, it was. The initial force was full body weight.”

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