Arizona Cardinals

Aaron Rodgers unhappy over botched coin flip, wanted to change pick

Published Jan. 17, 2016 8:35 a.m. ET

Kerouac Smith

The ending of the Arizona Cardinals win over the Green Bay Packers is one for the ages.

There was the Hail Mary to force overtime. And then in overtime, Larry Fitzgerald happened. It was an epic ending, one well-documented already.

But part of the lore of this game will be the overtime coin flip that wasn't. The coin went up and came down without ever rotating, leaving the players confused and the ref hustling to fix his error.

Our rules guru, Mike Pereira, says it was a bizarre situation, but agrees that the best call was for the coin to be flipped again. (You can also see the video from Pereira above).

Packers QB Aaron Rodgers -- who called tails on the original toss -- doesn't disagree, but he sounds a little frustrated that he never got the chance to amend his pick before the second toss. It appears Rodgers has a system for calling coin tosses; pick the opposite of whichever side is showing before the ref flips it.

Here's Rodgers outlining his frustration after the game (per ESPN).

"He was showing heads, so I called tails, and it didn't flip. It just tossed up in the air and did not turn over at all. It landed in the ground. So we obviously thought that was not right. He picked the coin up and flipped it to tails, and then he flipped it without giving me a chance to make a recall there. It was confusing. I think he was trying to avoid the embarrassment of what just happened. He flipped it quickly."

Rodgers said he would have picked heads the second time around, after seeing tails facing up before the flip, but never got his chance.

Obviously, the coin landed on heads.

Then Larry Fitzgerald went out and busted the Packers' tails.