After three weeks of constantly scrutinized on-field officiating, the “real” NFL referees were back on the field for Week 4’s games after making an agreement with NFL owners to end their labor strike. Salaries, pension plans and the number of crews to work NFL games were the main factors as to why NFL officials were locked out by the league and its owners.
In the interim, the NFL had hired officiating crews from high school and lower level college football to work the games until the labor dispute was settled. After having these “replacement refs” for three weeks, the owners and Commissioner Roger Goodell, as well as the referees’ union finally relented and the sides made an agreement early Wednesday morning.
Why were both sides so willing to compromise all of a sudden? Well, let’s just say that the replacement refs didn’t do their job so well.
All this being said, I do share some sympathy with these poor people that have been ridiculed so much in recent weeks. The replacements were set up to fail by the NFL and its owners, as these people should have never been allowed to officiate professional football games.
Most of the replacements were pulled from D-III college football, but some were even taken from a pool of high school and community college officials. Even though football is football, the speed of the professional game is very difficult to handle for someone who has not had prior experience in officiating this high level of talent.
So many mistakes and story lines were made during the past three weeks by the replacements that it is impossible to count or remember all of them. But, for a few laughs and “WTH” moments, here are my top 10 replacement ref story lines and blunders from the first three weeks of the season.
10) Holding Calls In General
In general, these officials had no idea what a holding penalty is. They called it when it wasn’t, and they didn’t call it when it was. At least the real refs get it right some of the time…
9) Four Timeouts?
For those who don’t know the rules of football, each team is awarded three timeouts per half that they can use to stop the clock. But, in a Week 1 match up between the Seattle Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals, the referees awarded an extra timeout to the Seahawks as they were trying to come back from a 20-16 deficit on their final drive of the game with less than two minutes remaining, the ball inside the Arizona 20 yard-line. With this extra timeout, the Seahawks had an extra opportunity to score and could have won the game from Arizona because of the opportunity to stop the clock with the 4th TO they received. Lucky for the refs, Arizona stopped the Seahawks on a 4th down play and hung on to win the game.
8) Monday Night Madness
In a Week 2 MNF match up between the Denver Broncos and Atlanta Falcons, 18 penalties were called and the game lasted over 3 hours, 45 minutes because of scrums between players after nearly every down in the game. Instead of taking out their anger on the referees for missed or disputed calls, players took it upon themselves to take their frustration out on each other by making the officials’ job that much more difficult. Atlanta won the game 27-21 thanks to four Peyton Manning interceptions.
7) Yo, McCoy!
According to Philadelphia Eagles’ star back LeSean McCoy, an official that worked the Eagles-Ravens game back in Week 2 told the running back that he needed him for his Fantasy Football team. As stated in the rules, it is illegal for referees who work NFL games to participate in such activities or other actions such as betting or being fans of other teams (a sneak peak of what’s to come). We don’t know if this is true, but if it is, it seriously damages the NFL’s reputation as one of the cleanest leagues in professional sports. Here’s Shady’s soundbite.
6) A Golden Block
This block by Golden Tate against Sean Lee of the Dallas Cowboys is completely illegal. A flag is called, but it is pretty obvious that Tate had no intent to do anything but KO the Dallas linebacker. The officials should have ejected Mr. Tate, but instead flagged him 15 meaningless yards.
5) A True Saint
Prior to a Week 2 game between the Saints and Panthers, a referee who was assigned to officiate the game was profiled as being a Saints fan, as evidenced by his profile picture on Facebook. ESPN first reported the controversy, and the NFL quickly decided to remove that official from working any more games. I mean, what a disgrace! If your going to get caught being a fan of the game, at least cheer for a team who has actually won a game.
4) 12th Man Connections
Unlike the incident above, a Seahawks fan (and former employee) actually DID work a Seattle game, a 27-7 win over Dallas in Week 2. The NFL did not know about the referee’s ties to the Seattle organization until after the game had ended, and still took very little action. The Seahawks won 27-7 over the Cowboys, but trust me, that ref had very little to do with the outcome. Big D just came up 20 points short.
3) Ouch
I don’t really know which aspect of this play is the most pathetic: Ryan Mundy’s successful spear attempt, or the fact that NOTHING was called. Forget that Darrius Heyward-Bey had to be carted off the field, it is very obvious from looking at the play that Steelers defender Ryan Mundy launched himself and made helmet-to-helmet contact with the Oakland wide receiver. In my mind, this hit is worthy of ejection and a hefty fine from Commissioner Roger Goodell. Instead, no penalty and no ejection are called. PATHETIC.
2) Hats Off
While some might find this play hilarious, I find it disturbing. As stated in the NFL rules, an eligible receiver is not allowed to come back into the field of play and be the first person to touch the ball. To mark where the player went out of bounds, referees typically throw a bean bag at that particular spot. In this case, however, the referee decided to throw his hat in the field of play. Dallas receiver Kevin Ogletree, who never actually went out of bounds, slipped on the hat and luckily did not get injured. Ogletree, however, could have easily ended his season right there with a torn ACL and MCL, just by slipping on that dumb referee’s hat.
1) Green Bay Possessed (FIRST!!!): The Replacement Ref Crisis of 2012
Go ahead, tell me the Packers didn’t have it first.
