“Therefore allowed to be hit in the head,” concluded referee Shawn Hochuli as he announced why the flags — plural as there were at least two thrown on the play — were picked up after Buccaneers safety Jordan Whitehead struck a sliding Baker Mayfield late in Tampa Bay’s 26-23 overtime win over the Browns.

“Therefore allowed to be hit in the head”.

You can hear the league office cringing at Hochuli’s bizarre, and thoroughly, impossibly incorrect interpretation of the NFL’s safety rules. But that was the young referee’s justification.

Aside from being cringeworthy, it’s also flat-out wrong. No player is ever allowed to be hit in the head by another player leading with the crown of his helmet. That’s precisely what Whitehead did. Whether the safety began his head-first dive before or after Mayfield started his slide is irrelevant.

There is never a time when a player can legally drop his head, leave his feet and engage an opponent with the crown of his helmet. When that initial contact is with the helmet of another player, the consideration should not be whether its a penalty or not. It should be whether the offending player is ejected.

Picking up that flag is inexcusable in a season chock full of officiating improprieties directed at the Browns. There is no semblance of fair play or equity from the officiating now. Blatant misinterpretation of the league’s well-documented rules like this one will not help.