#NFL ref admits to screwing up in stunning video

It feels like there is a perplexing roughing-the-passer penalty at least once a week during the NFL season.

Rarely, however, do the officials admit a mistake.

But umpire Roy Ellison did just that after the crew on the Buccaneers-Bengals preseason game Saturday flagged Tampa Bay rookie first-round pick Joe Tryon for unnecessary roughness.

Tryon was wearing a microphone during the game for a video produced by the team’s website. And it picked up audio of this exchange:

Ellison to Tryon: “That was a good play on the roughing the passer.”

Tryon: “I didn’t mean to hit him like that.”

Ellison: “I think we may have screwed that up.”

Well, the preseason is meant for working out the kinks, right? Not just for the players.

Helmet-to-helmet contact is almost always going to lead to a penalty in today’s NFL, though it did not appear Tryon lowered his head to deliver the hit on Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow. The helmet-to-helmet contact appears relatively minimal and unavoidable when the play is seen at full speed.

It’s not clear whether Ellison had seen an in-game replay or received word of the mistake from someone in his ear.