NFL Network’s Walt Anderson says controversial Panthers-Bucs OPI call may have been incorrect

It’s rare that a former official working for NFL Network, a league-owned media outfit, would publicly critique a referee while on the air. But Walt Anderson went there, albeit in a very measured way, on Sunday morning when discussing a controversial pass interference call in Saturday’s critical NFC South matchup between the Carolina Panthers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Anderson, who has over two decades of NFL officiating experience and now serves as an officiating spokesperson for NFL Network, explained the rule that officials were trying to properly enforce on Panthers wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan, which erased a 32-yard completion during the third quarter of Saturday’s game.

Walt Anderson isn’t so sure this was PI, which will be little consolation to Panthers fans…pic.twitter.com/eoXYTeDHkC https://t.co/jvdrAhPtc8

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 4, 2026

The former official explained a subtlety in how the pass interference rule is enforced when receivers are trying to get off a defender’s jam close to the line of scrimmage. According to Anderson, receivers are allowed to contact a defender’s arms to swat them away, but a penalty is called when the receiver contacts the body or head of a defender to create an advantage. That’s, apparently, what the official called. But when Anderson was pressed about whether the call was correct, he made a rare break from his former colleagues.

“It’s really, really close,” Anderson said. “It looks like he’s knocking the arm off, which would not be pass interference. I’m sure that the official who is down field, and from his angle, I’m sure it looked like, and the effect was, that it was a push to the head.”

By NFL Network standards, that’s about as strong a rebuke as you’ll get. And it’s telling. The call was the subject of plenty of controversy on Saturday, and directly impacted Carolina’s playoff chances. A win would’ve put them in without question. Now, the Panthers await the result of the Saints-Falcons game to decide their fate.

Notably, Anderson’s opinion was different to that of ESPN rules analyst Mike Chase, who supported the call during Saturday’s broadcast. “He shoves him out of the play to begin with. That’s why he’s so wide open,” Chase said after his colleague Dan Orlovsky definitively said, “That’s just not offensive pass interference.”

Whatever the case, this seems like something the league will take a close look at this offseason in order to create some more straightforward guidelines.