Inside the pool-report process, which wasn't activated as to the key play in Bills-Chiefs

All players and coaches must face reporters after each and every game, no matter how gut-wrenching or heartbreaking the outcome may have been. Game officials, however, remained cocooned.

With one exception. The pool report process. Amazingly, there was no pool report after Sunday's AFC Championship from referee Clete Blakeman or any other member of the crew regarding the critical fourth-down spot when the Bills led, 22-21, in the fourth quarter.

As explained on Monday, none of the reporters covering the game in person asked for a pool report. Which is of course causing some to believe that the reporters are in on the effort to cover up the effort to help the Chiefs. Which is ludicrous — but it's also impossible to tell people to stop believing that which they firmly believe. (As the last 10 years of American political discourse have proven, over and over again.)

The story has shined a light on the pool report process, especially since the NFC Championship, a 55-23 blowout win by the Eagle, prompted a pool report regarding the repeated encroachment fouls by Washington and the warning that a touchdown eventually would be awarded under the "palpably unfair act" rule.

So we asked the league to explain the process for triggering a pool report. Here's the response, from league spokesperson Michael Signora: "A media member at the game can request a pool report to make inquiries about rules interpretations. When that occurs, the media member tells one of the pool reporters assigned by the Pro Football Writers of America that they are requesting a pool report and what the subject is. The PFWA assigns pool reporters for each team from their local media contingent, so there are always several at every game. The home club communications director is informed, since they will need to distribute the transcript, and I am informed, so I can let the referee know what the subject of the interview will be."

Can the league decline the request? Per Signora, "We have never declined a pool report request that I’m aware of." (This implies that, in theory, a request could be declined.)

In this case, there absolutely should have been a pool report. Even though one of the reporters at the game must affirmatively request it, the league should have realized that, in this specific case, transparency in the explanation of the mechanics of the call and its outcome were critical.

Without any effort to explain what happened and how it happened, the tinfoil-hat crowd has even more reason to apply another layer of Reynolds Wrap to their pre-chromed domes.

And I've got the emails to prove it.