Iowa fans have spent days analyzing and agonizing over fair catch rules, trying to figure out why Cooper DeJean’s would-be game-winning punt return touchdown vs. Minnesota was called back.

What would have given Iowa a 17-12 lead was instead overturned following a review of the play. Iowa retained possession, but couldn’t find the end zone on its offensive drive, falling 12-10 to the Golden Gophers.

And it’s not just Hawkeye fans questioning the call, either. On Tuesday’s episode of “The Pat McAfee Show,” Iowa fans found an unlikely ally in Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who ripped into the referees for overturning the touchdown.

“That was the most ridiculous call that I saw all last week,” Rodgers said. “This is so ridiculous. Nothing about this says fair catch. Absolutely nothing about this. The ball is on the ground. He’s pointing at it for his gunners to get out of the way. All they were looking at was, did he step out, with the review.

“Then, they’re gonna go back and wave this thing off? Absolutely ridiculous call. Classic of them to double down and say, ‘Yep, totally a fair catch.’ Nothing about that had fair catch energy. Absolutely nothing. I feel terrible for the kid, gutted for him. For Iowa fans, that’s awful.”

McAfee, a former punter at West Virginia and the Indianapolis Colts, is very familiar with punt returns and agreed that it didn’t look like a fair catch motion. Since there was no flag on the play, he criticized the official for just adding it on later when no one on the field of play felt that way before the review.

Waving your arms to clear players out of the way is “standard operating procedure” on a punt return, per McAfee, since the ball bounces a lot and all the players can leave the line of scrimmage before the ball is kicked.

“I would add to that and say, he caught the ball on the Minnesota sideline,” Rodgers said. “Is there anybody on the sideline pointing, saying, ‘He called for a fair catch!’ Nobody’s pointing, nobody’s going crazy.

“I didn’t see the game, I just saw that highlight — lowlight, for Iowa fans — but that whole sequence, were there coaches on the Minnesota sideline making fair catch gestures? No, nobody thought about it for a second except for one person in the entire place, or the replay official who was like, ‘Hm, let me consult Page 72 of the rulebook, Item A says. … ‘ No.

“Nobody thought that had anything to do with a fair catch, because it didn’t.”