NFL institutes new hand signal due to Patriots new formations

USA Today Sports

During the AFC Divisional round the New England Patriots unveiled their odd eligible/ineligible receiver sets. It caught the Baltimore Ravens and even head referee Bill Vinovich off guard.

Vinovich will be the head referee for Super Bowl XLIX so if the Patriots decide to break out that formation again, he should be ready for it. But just in case, the NFL has added a new hand signal for the refs to help cut out any confusion that they or the opposing team may have.

Pete Carroll says the refs will make a new signal to properly ID a player who isn’t eligible, then is eligible. Seahawks prepping for it
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 29, 2015

Carroll says the refs will point with two hands at the player in question, explaining whether he’s eligible. “Never done that before.”
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 29, 2015

The signals will help in situation when a player goes from being ineligible to eligible. Such as when Nate Solder became eligible in the AFC Championship game and caught a 16 yard touchdown pass.

You know your trick plays really caught everyone off guard when the NFL starts adding new hand signals for the refs. Also since the NFL is doing this, it goes against Tony Dungy saying the formations are illegal. But we already knew that.

UPDATE

It sounds like Walt Anderson did this in the AFC Championship game

Sounds like the new way of signaling #Patriots eligible/ineligible formations will be the same thing Walt Anderson did in AFC title game.

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) January 29, 2015

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