Santonio Holmes channeled LeBron after his touchdown.

Peter Read Miller/SI

Should the referees have flagged Santonio Holmes for excessive celebration after his game-winning touchdown catch in Super Bowl XLIII?

Mike Periera, the NFL's vice president of officiating, says they should have, according to a USA Today story.

Holmes was deemed by the officials to have had both feet in bounds on his winning 6-yard touchdown reception from Ben Roethlisberger with 0:35 left. The call was upheld on replay review.

But after the play, Holmes did use the ball as a prop when he mimicked basketball star LeBron James' pre-game move of shaking powder onto his hands and tossing the powder in the air. In the NFL, using the ball as a prop calls for a 15-yard excessive celebration penalty.

On the ensuing kickoff, Pittsburgh would have kicked from its 15-yard line instead of the usual 30. Arizona started its final drive at its own 23. Who knows where it might have been had the call been made on Holmes?

"Well, it would have been (called) if we had seen it. It was one of these plays where it happened so far after the play was over," said Pereira.

Do you agree with Pereira? Do you think the officials were employing a flexible interpretation of the rules -- or did they simply forget?

What if ...? NFL VP says Holmes' celebration was a foul [USA Today]