Penalty Discussion...

His hand was inside the facemask, I have no idea what else there is to argue about.  

The call did not cost the Lions the game. The fact that they didn't think there would be a Hail Mary did.

Hand inside the facemask, thumb shifted the facemask/helmet has the hand moved across the facemask. Slowmo or realtime it's a penalty.

It was a face mask. He pulls Rodgers mask albeit with a finger but that's what it was. I do not know what else ppl want. Does Rodgers head have to get half ripped off for other fans to be happy?

The Lions allowed GB to hang around way too long. Then the played perhaps the worst defense you can on a hail mary play as described here

That's why they lost. End of story.

I guess Rodgers should have bitten his thumb off to prove the point. 

There is no rule on the minimmum number of digits that must be contacting the face make to have a penalty, or the minimum amount of time for said contact. NFL used to have minor (five yard) and Major (15 yard) designations, but dropped that to simplify it. In real time it sure look like the hand hooked the mask before moving to the shoulder pad, but please recall last year when Brad Jones merely grazed the head of Stafford to get a roughing the QB call. Plus TWO refs threw flags in real time.

the Detroit guy said after the game that it wasn't a facemask. However, his reaction and body language after the ref threw the flag said otherwise. He didn't complain, rather he just looked up, realizing he screwed up. 

I think this is the last time anyone will call Bret Bielema for advice on defending Hail Mary passes.

In that situation, it's on the defender to make sure he doesn't get near the QB's head in any way. We all know that just touching a QB's head brings a penalty and the Lion player blew it. He did get a finger in the mask: penalty. 

Frankly, I call it sweet karma after the loss in the desert.  

The play has nothing to do with a QB.

Florio feels that by the letter of the rule, it wasn't a facemask, but he clearly failed his logic class.  The rule states that if the fingers grasp the facemask without immediately releasing it, it is a penalty.  But that doesn't mean if the player immediately releases the facemask, it's NOT a penalty.  Even if the actual grasping of the facemask was brief, the continuing impact of the motion on Rodger's helmet resulted in a sudden twisting of his head/neck to the side.  That is the whole point of the penalty - to protect a player from that sudden twisting motion causing an injury. 

It was a delayed call from the Arizona play-off game 8 years ago.

I used to think that penalty calls (or non-calls) pretty much evened out over the course of a game. The last few years have put some doubt in that. It seems when a penalty is called has more affect than the total number of calls.

Either way, I remain convinced that football games are NEVER decided by any single play.

It's part of the game...and everybody has to live with it. Earlier, the Packers had points taken off the board by both the offensive pass interference that did not take place and Sitton's  hold, which was less evident than the facemark.