Replacement refs ruining NFL? Think again
Yael T. AbouhalkahSure, the NFL’s replacement referees blew Monday night’s final play, ruling the Green Bay interception a Seattle touchdown, giving the game (literally) to the Seahawks, 14-12.
(UPDATE: NFL officially says its refs didn’t make mistake on TD call. For a good laugh, read Tuesday’s press release here.)
But with all the national outrage today over the refs - putting pressure on NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to settle with the “real” refs - don’t lose sight of a few facts.
People are watching the NFL in near-record numbers. So the replacement refs haven’t hurt TV ratings, which is Priority No. 1 (and 2, 3 , 4 and 5) with the league.
Never forget that the “real” refs also have made mistakes in the past. Agreed, the number of egregious mistakes made in 2012 is way up over past years, but let’s not act as if the regular refs were even close to perfect.
While some NFL players claim the replacement refs are costing them games, don’t take that argument too far. More often than not, the teams that deserve to lose a game, lose a game.
Green Bay is a perfect example. The Packers looked horrible in Monday night’s game, and quarterback Aaron Rodgers was sacked multiple times in the first half. Indeed, the high-powered Packers offense scored only 12 points the entire game.
While the Seahawks were even more impotent on offense for much of the game, look at how they were in position to win the game: Green Bay couldn’t make a first down when pinned near its end zone at the end of the game and had to punt with little time left to Seattle.
The Seahawks got the ball near midfield and, on the final play, quarterback Russell Wilson threw a Hail Mary pass. Receiver Golden Tate committed pass interference by shoving a Packer out of the way, and the rest is history.
With all that said, the NFL today is feeling more pressure to protect the “integrity of the game” by settling with the real refs. It may happen soon. But if it doesn’t, life will go on.
NFL games will continue to be played.
And fans will keep watching.
Phil Cardarella
8 months agoOK, even a good Golden Domer like Golden Tate can get a bit over-enthused and push another guy in the heat of battle, as it were. Amid all those bodies, that was hard to see (in real time, not slow-mo replay).
But, the real problem that Green Bay had was that — instead of knocking the ball to the ground and ending the game — Jennings decided to showboat and get an interception. At that point, all Golden had to do was establish his own control on the ball while they went down before Jennings got full control — and the refs saw simultaneous reception.
The egregious error was not seeing and calling the shove by Tate, but any ref can miss that in a scrum. The touchdown call was defensible — and maybe technically correct.
Which does not justify the Billionaire Owners Club refusing to shell out some chump change to get good officiating.
Phil Cardarella
8 months agoBesides, who better to catch a Hail Mary pass than a graduate of the University of Notre Dame?
Mark Hastert
8 months agoScott Walker is supporting the UNION Refs… LOL!