The Philadelphia Eagles don't have to worry about Pete Morelli being the head official of their games anymore. The NFL announced Morelli and Walt Coleman will retire from officiating at the end of the season, which leaves two open referee positions available for 2019.

Morelli and his officiating crew made NFL history in the Eagles' 28-23 win over the Panthers in 2017, the final Eagles game Morelli officiated. The game had the biggest discrepancy of penalty yards between two teams ever.

This was the first time in the 99-year history of the NFL one team had over 120 penalty yards while another team had less than 10. The Eagles finished with 10 penalties for 126 yards while the Panthers had one penalty for one yard.

Morelli and his crew had skewed penalty numbers against the Eagles in their last four games officiating the team. The Eagles have been called for 40 penalties for 396 yards while their opponents have just eight for 96.

The numbers were so poor Eagles fans actually started a petition to the league to ban Morelli from calling games, which over 70,000 signed. NFL head of officiating Scott Green took a shot at Eagles fans and their disdain of Morelli after the news broke to him.

"Claims like these demonstrate a fundamental lack of knowledge about NFL officiating," Green said. "The passion of NFL fans and teams are a big part of what makes the game so great. However, it’s no excuse for the irresponsible and baseless claims we’ve seen lately."

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Green took his opportunity to slam the factual evidence presented in front of him, while accusing the media of "click-bait" headlines. The Eagles also sent tapes to NFL headquarters of Thursday's game, asking for clarification of calls.

"These recent attempts to sensationalize statistics and create click-bait headlines lack important context," Green said. "Without the proper perspective, the information being pushed is completely misguided."

For example:

The reports incorrectly focus solely on number of penalties called and the total yardage assessed on a team compared to its opponent.

This relies solely on end-of-game statistics, which are not an accurate picture of the game’s called penalties. It fails to take into account that some penalties that are called are declined.

Conversely, not all penalty yardage is equal. Team A may be assessed 30 penalty yards via six separate five-yard fouls, but Team B could be assessed 30 yards through one pass interference penalty.Finally, to insinuate that a specific crew is historically biased against a team fails to consider the reality that crews are made up of different officials each season.

"The passion of NFL fans and teams are a big part of what makes the game so great,” Green said. “However, it’s no excuse for the irresponsible and baseless claims we’ve seen lately. NFL officials are committed to upholding the integrity of the game and do so every week."

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The last game Coleman officiated for the Eagles was their Week 5 loss to the Vikings. That was the game where Michael Bennett was called for a controversial roughing the passer penalty that led to a Vikings touchdown.

Coleman made the call that changed the entire first half as Bennett was called on a roughing the passer penalty on a 2nd-and-6 sack on this tackle on Kirk Cousins. The Vikings scored a touchdown two plays later to take a 14-point lead into halftime.

The Vikings ended up defeating the Eagles 23-21. Here was Coleman's explanation to NBC Sports Philadelphia's Reuben Frank on the penalty.

"He went low into the quarterback's knees with his shoulder with force. The rule is you can't hit the quarterback low at the knee area or below with force. He got him there with his shoulder, which is far what I got as for roughing the passer.

"You just can't hit the quarterback below the knee area and he got him below his shoulder with force."