Tuesday, September 25, 2012

NFL Upholds Seahawks Win -- Of Course, What Else Did You Expect?

First, let me start off by stating I got to give credit to Sports Illustrated's renown, Peter King and his piece "Lack of Communication Ultimately Led to Embarrassing Monday Gaffe." Read that and then see how I attempt to take this one step forward. The above video, while I know it's from YouTube, had to ultimately come from ESPN. I converted it from "flv" format to a more universal "wmv".

The NFL offices today came out and conceded that a bad call ultimately cost the Green Bay Packers a win, but I interject that NFL's statement was a self-serving piece of male bovine excrement. Of course, they're going to agree with their "scab" referees (I'm not going to use "replacements" because it sounds too PC.) The bad call they conceded was offensive pass interference -- which is not reviewable and was a meaningless concession. The NFL wants to interject that this call was correctly made on the field and didn't effect the outcome of the game. Moo, moo.

When the NFL sided with the scab referees, they affirmed the erroneous judgement call on the field. Holding is a judgement call, pass interference is a judgement call, and they are not reviewable. However, turnovers are reviewable. That the scabs couldn't differentiate between simultaneous possession and one receiver trying to steal the ball from a defender didn't matter to the NFL offices. Thus, the NFL gets to sit in their offices in New York City and tell everyone, "We're sticking with the judgement call. It didn't effect the outcome of the game. What is everybody poo-pooing about?" It is sooooo self-serving in the referee strike crisis and negotiations in their public statement that a mistake wasn't made, and that they'll continue to use scab referees. Then there's statements out of their office about, "Well, even the real referees make mistakes during games too." IMMATERIAL!!! Would the real referees have made THIS mistake on THIS call is the only question, but we'll never know because they were sitting at home drinking beer and eating nachos. (Unless you're Ed Hochuli, he was probably doing arm curls.) *I know I owe someone a reference to that one, I can't remember who -- sorry.


I'm not saying the NFL should have overturned the call the next day and give the Packers a win -- that would have been unprecedented and set an extremely slippery slope; could you imagine that happening every week? What I'm saying is the NFL talks the talk about "integrity of the game" (moo, moo) but doesn't walk the walk. The NFL should have recognized a mistake was done, that the scabs are knuckleheads and blow calls, but that they won't/can't reverse it, and let's move on to next week.


5 comments:

Zebster said...

You are absolutely correct, my friend. They're in damage control mode via the PR route instead of fixing the damn problem. Great rant!
And since you and G have your boot pic on your profiles, I've added mine too. SF and oooorah!

Eddie said...

I don't see how they can say it was a simultaneous possession. Tate has 1 hand on the ball while M.D. Jennings has 2 and has it pinned to his chest, when Tate then places his other hand on the ball. That's not simultaneous possession: M.D. Jennings had possession of the ball. Jennings caught the ball; Tate caught Jennings.

If it's one thing that makes me the angriest about these refs is the total lack of consistency. I get it, they're scabs, but the NFL needs to really start making deals with the real refs to avoid further tarnishing the NFL's credibility, or what remains of it.

Also, you need to look up how the Lingerie Football League dismissed refs for being inept. Guess where those refs are now: the NFL.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/lancemadden/2012/09/25/lingerie-football-league-we-fired-some-current-nfl-replacement-refs/

tpubgu said...

Nice one, Zeb. We'll always be teenagers if we keep those pics up.

Good points, Eddie. Thanks for stopping by.

Anonymous said...

There's a part of me that doesn't feel sympathy over this. When someone gets screwed out of a playoff win and a possible Super Bowl, then they'll know my pain.

Until then, this is just one of several games in the season.

Brent said...

I tend to agree with R.J., there isn't that much sympathy that I can conjure up for the players, commentators or the most rabid fans out there. For every commentator out there taking pot shots of what they percieve are bad calls, I know that they won't take this critical of an eye to the officiating when the "real" officials come back.

Remember back a couple of years ago, when fans and the Pittsburgh Steelers among many were whining about the NFL trying to legislate football out of football? Remember when the players were all crying about how they weren't allowed to play the type of football that they were taught since grade school? Well, they are allowed to play it now and everybody in the world is whining about safety and how this isn't what they expected.

Get back to me when the players decide what they want.