I have spent a lot of time railing about the officiating in the National Football League and the rules that are supposed to make the game better.

So, I guess it was only fitting that the officiating reared its ugly head again on the final week of the regular season and in the final game of the day.

Instead of just being a bad non-call and poor use of the NFL’s new rule that is supposed to correct pass interference penalties, this one may have a profound impact on the outcome of the league’s entire playoff season.

Let me set the scene for you. The Seattle Seahawks are driving for a late touchdown that would defeat the San Francisco 49ers. Hanging in the balance is the top seed in the NFC for the 49ers and the NFC West Division title.

On third down, it appeared that 49ers linebacker Fred Warner made early contact with Seahawks tight end Jacob Hollister. With the NFL’s new rule that reviews potential missed pass interference calls, one would think that New York would have stopped the game and taken a long look at the play, you know, because of everything that was on the line.

No such stoppage was forthcoming. Al Riveron, the head of NFL officiating, would later comment that they had a “great look” at the play, and nothing needed to be done.

Unfortunately, all of us with an untrained eye, could clearly see that Warner committed pass interference. The play should have been stopped, reviewed and overturned, which is exactly what the rule was put in place for.

Instead, Seattle is unable to score thanks to a great defensive play on fourth down.

My biggest problem with this is that it not only affected the outcome of one game, but changed the playoff seeding. This just simply cannot happen. You cannot have terrible calls deciding the seeding of the playoffs, let alone the outcome of a game.

If you are going to put in a rule to make sure these things do not happen, and then you do not use it, then why bother? Why bother having replay at all? It just simply is not working the way it is supposed to. It just slows down the game.

When the playoffs wrap up and a Super Bowl champion is crowned, I can only hope the NFL’s competition committee will take a good, long look at the state of officiating and the implementation of replay. Both need to be improved before more fans become disenchanted with the league and begin turning to other sports.

Scott Novak is sports editor for Leader Publications. He can be reached at scott.novak@leaderpub.com.