Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers upset about coin toss dispute

Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is upset he was not allowed to make a new call for the overtime coin re-toss in Saturday night's NFC divisional-round playoff game against the Arizona Cardinals.

Referee Clete Blakeman tried to toss a medallion end over end before the start of overtime, but the coin never actually flipped after the Packers called tails.

The coin came up heads and the Packers immediately began to complain. Blakeman picked up the coin and told the players he had to flip it again, which he did.

This time the coin flipped, but once again it came up heads and the Cardinals chose to receive the kickoff, setting up the only possession in overtime in their 26-20 victory over the Packers.

Rodgers, who was at midfield as one of the team's captains, said he was upset that Blakeman did not allow him to make a new call for the second toss.

"Clete had it on heads," Rodgers said Saturday night after the game. "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."

Rodgers said he would have called heads on the second toss if given the chance.

"I think he was trying to avoid the embarrassment of what just happened," Rodgers said. "He flipped it quickly."

The NFL rulebook contains detailed instructions for a coin toss but does not mention a requirement that it flip.

"There is nothing in the rulebook that specifies this," NFL spokesman Michael Signora told ESPN.com on Sunday. "But the referee used his judgment to determine that basic fairness dictated that the coin should flip for the toss to be valid. That is why he re-tossed the coin."