Football! (the real kind, not the European variety)

[Shan'do Spike]

Any contact to the face is a penalty regardless of the situation.

You are incorrect. I quoted from the NFL rulebook as to why you're incorrect, but I'll post it again with giant emphasis on the end of the rule:

A "facemask" penalty is a judgment call that is not reviewable by replay.

Rule 12, Section 2, Article 5 of the NFL Rule Book (page 81) states that "no player shall twist, turn, or pull the facemask of an opponent in any direction."

The Rule Book describes the penalty as follows:

"Penalty: For twisting, turning or pulling the mask: loss of 15 yards. A personal foul. The player may be disqualified if the action is judged by the official(s) to be of a flagrant nature."

The Rule Book describes an approved ruling as it relates to facemask penalties (page 81).

"A.R. 12.12 - Third-and-10 on A30. Runner A1 runs to the A33, where he is tackled by B1, who incidentally grasps A1's facemask on the tackle, but it is not a twist, turn or pull. Ruling: A's ball, fourth-and-seven, on A33. No foul."

Note, I'm not saying what did or didn't happen with the last play of the game. I'm just contesting the assertion that "touch the face => automatic penalty".

I'm just going to choose to not respond to your other post. You're a Packers fan. I'm a Cardinals fan. You're always going to see calls as biased against you, just as I'm going to see them as biased against me. (And for the record, I just watched the video again. I see absolutely nothing from that angle that couldn't be a natural body response to his lower body being tackled to the ground. He gets hit and he falls to his left. His head does not move at any weird angle or velocity that suggests it's being pulled or hit.). You'll complain about Woodson getting pushed over. I'll point out that Woodson was being just as physical to Fitzgerald, and things like that happen when the referees decide to "let the players play". It's similar to different umpires having different strike zones in baseball. As long as they are consistent, it's generally considered okay. Trust me, if I really wanted to spend the time (I don't) I could find tons of plays where Woodson knocked the crap out of Fitzgerald but it wasn't called. This is exactly what I mean by "calls even out over times". The reason you're not seeing them on highlight shows is because the Cardinals won. There's a reason Packers players aren't mouthing off, complaining about the refereeing, and it's because they know they had plenty of chances to win the game beyond that.

Anyway, this is a pointless argument. I just didn't want the "any contact to the face is an automatic penalty stuff to stand".