Lately, I can't check Twitter or Facebook, watch five minutes of ESPN or NFL Network, or talk about football with anybody at work without hearing/reading a complaint about the replacement referees. That storyline has played its course. It's time to move on.
If you've ever criticized a call or badmouthed an NFL official, you have little room to complain now. The "real" refs are better than the replacements, of course, but you were going to complain about them too if they were on the field the first few weeks of the 2012 season.
I began watching football in approximately 1993, and for the better part of the past 19 years I've heard a thousand angry NFL fans bitch about blown calls. I've heard dozens of people claim their blind grandma could have made a better, more accurate call. Now, all of the sudden, those same refs who sucked for 19 years are god's gift to the NFL?
I call B.S.
Sports fans are always looking for something to complain about. Maybe it's out of jealousy, I don't know, but it doesn't matter who plays, coaches, officiates, or commishes, you are going to nitpick and critique everybody, all the time.
The real refs have been notoriously bad at important times. They cost the Seattle Seahawks a Super Bowl victory in Detroit, when the Steelers' Ben Roethlisberger's goaline dive--which clearly fell 10-12 inches short of the endzone--was ruled a touchdown. More recently, just last season, a miraculous trick play which resulted in a Johnny Knox punt return touchdown for the Bears, was called back on a phantom hold, the 49ers were able to beat the Lions aided by a bad spot from a ref, Andy Reid of the Eagles was forced to waste a challenge on an obvious forward pass ruling, the NFL admitted to a multitude of blown calls that many thought screwed over both teams in last year's Saints-Lions playoff game, and a bad roughing the passer call wiped out a Cam Newton interception and directly led to a Panther's touchdown against the Cardinals. This is the tip of the iceberg of blown calls (by the "real" refs) having a huge effect on the outcome of NFL games.
I like the real refs better than the replacements, and I hope they return to work soon (mostly because I want you all to shut up about how much you hate the replacements).
I don't want to hear one more bogus assertion that the replacement refs are putting player's safety in risky situations either. The players are ultimately responsible for their own and each other's safety. Do you mean to tell me that defensive players are intentionally delivering helmet-to-helmet blows because they believe a replacement ref is less likely to throw a flag? That's asinine. I have noticed that games in 2012 seem to be a little "more chippy" than the average 2011 game, but I don't believe it to be a serious threat to player's safety and I don't believe the officials are anything above "slightly" responsible.
I do believe and sincerely hope that the speed of NFL games increases once the regular refs return, because I think the replacements take a little bit too long to make decisions. However, I think the correct call has been made with far more frequency than the incorrect call. A couple instances of unprofessionalism have occurred in the form of a Saints fan with photos of himself wearing a Drew Brees jersey on his facebook page failing to declare it a conflict of interest for him to officiate a Saint's game, and one ref purportedly wishing LeSean McCoy a good game to help his fantasy team. There is no excuse for those two instances and that is all the news I need to declare myself ready for the real refs to return.
The calls being made on the field have absolutely nothing to do with it.
No comments:
Post a Comment