Ref’s mic picks up Lee Smith interrupting penalty announcement to plead case: “I was just kidding around!”

Terry McAulay has tonight’s Sunday Night Football assignment for the Dolphins and Raiders in Miami, a game that’s already produced at least a few highlight-worthy plays.

But this was a particularly fun one. McAulay was in the middle of announcing an unnecessary roughness personal foul on Raiders tight end Lee Smith when Smith himself interrupted to plead his case:

You don’t normally see the referee get interrupted mid-announcement like that. McAulay remained completely stone-faced throughout, too. Smith had a reasonable case, though, because this was the “unnecessary roughness” for which Smith was flagged:

Yeah, that’s a pretty weak call. Thankfully for NBC, Smith at least kept his argument clean.