Well, it’s about time. The replacement officials are gone and the regular officials are back and ready to restore order.
It was sloppy right from the start, but we knew it would get better eventually. It was week one of the preseason, what else did you expect? Even the great Ed Hochuli, a 28 year veteran official made a bad call or two. Just ask Norv Turner and Jim Schwartz. They were on the losing end of two of Hochuli’s most controversial calls in 2008 and 2010 respectively.
Ok so week three of the regular season had come and gone and things were not running smoothly. There has never once been this much of a collective outcry of displeasure in the history of professional sports. Owners, coaches, players, and fans are all in an uproar over the performance of these replacement officials, and with good reason.
ESPN.com writer Gregg Easterbrook said it perfectly. “Let’s cut to the chase — the replacement officials have lost control of the game.”
If you weren’t convinced of how bad they’d been already then Monday night’s matchup between Seattle and Green Bay surely made you wonder. 27 penalty flags were thrown during the game, a very high amount. However, the most crucial penalty to determine the outcome of the game was never called. Trailing in the final seconds of the 4th quarter Russell Wilson heaved a desperation pass to the back of the endzone in hopes one of his Seattle receivers would come down with the ball. Golden Tate blatantly committed an offensive pass interference penalty and was able to get a grip on the ball before he fell to the ground. But, MD Jennings of Green Bay secured most of the ball and clearly should’ve been ruled an interception instead of a touchdown. No surprise, the officials didn’t see it that way and it was ruled a touchdown, giving Seattle the win.
To me, that was the straw that broke not only the camel’s but also Goodell’s back.The horrible judgment on pass interference calls made in nearly every game on the schedule so far was bad enough. But to blow a call of this proportion that reversed the outcome of a game is uncalled for. Not only that, according to an article on espn.com between 150 and 250 million dollars worth of betting money was altered.
In a quote from ESPN columnist Rick Reilly, “What will finally do it? If a game unfairly won and a game unfairly lost with about $150 million changing hands on the betting line doesn’t force Goodell and the owners to get sensible, then what will? Bribes uncovered? Somebody’s career ruined?”
To echo Reilly, what will do it? It looked like nothing would until that fiasco in Seattle. It seemed like the only tangible way to provoke some sort of a change would be to stop watching the game in its entirety. If fans didn’t buy tickets and attend the games, and other fans didn’t watch from home, then maybe, just maybe Goodell would have been forced to take some action. Luckily, we will no longer have to be plagued by these horrific replacement officials.
I wonder how the NFL even found these people to referee. Some of the Other jobs held by these replacement officials include a bankruptcy lawyer, president of a financial group, high school teacher, parks and recreation director, and real estate agent. Which one of those jobs qualified these guys to be NFL officials? The answer is none.
Thankfully one potential travesty was averted when the NFL discovered one of its replacement officials, Brian Strapolo, was a diehard New Orleans Saints fan and scheduled to work a Saints game that weekend. Officials are obviously not allowed to show any allegiance for a particular team to prevent bias from coming into play. This guy didn’t even inform the league that he was a Saints fan and probably would’ve gone on and made calls in their favor. Where is the morality in that?
Meanwhile, retired NFL official Terry Gierke called the incident “sad.” “The replacements are an embarrassment,’’ Gierke told USA TODAY Sports from his Portland, Ore., home. “Here you have an official who has no common sense to go post something like that on his Facebook page. The people they are bringing in are a disgrace.”
The integrity of the game was being tarnished with every blown call they made. The worst part was that commissioner Roger Goodell seemed to have no interest in rectifying the situation. He had been giving off the impression that as long as people are still watching, then there’s no need to hurry up and reach an agreement.
Thankfully, the NFL finally reached an eight-year agreement with the NFL Referees Association on Wednesday night to end the lockout, and NFL Commissioner Roger and the refs were back on the field for Thursday night’s game between the Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens. The new collective bargaining agreement that was signed on Friday is the longest between the league and game officials in NFL history.
Cheered from the moment they walked onto the field, the men in stripes ran a smooth and efficient game as the NFL’s lockout of officials came to an end with the Ravens’ 23-16 win over the Browns.
“To just be applauded by 50,000 people prior to anything happening, it was something that kind of chokes you up,” referee Gene Steratore said. “It was a very special feeling.”
In an open letter released by the league Friday, a day after the regular officials returned to the field, Goodell says: “I regret we were not able to secure an agreement sooner in the process and avoid the unfortunate distractions to the game.”
Well at least Goodell expressed some sort of remorse for everything that happened. Now we can go back to complaining about the regular officials again. At least with the regular officials closing out the year, there won’t have to be an asterisk placed next to the 2012 season in the record books.
