When NFL owners locked out regular (unionized) referees this summer over pay, pension, and other contract issues, they surely did not anticipate that the talk of the league at this point in the season would be more about bad calls than good plays.
This talk came into stark relief on Monday night after a bad call by replacement referees on the very last play of the game handed a win to the Seattle Seahawks over the (heavily favored) Green Bay Packers 14-12.
I should insert here that I did not watch this game; not least because, with all due respect especially to the Cheeseheads of Green Bay, I did not think it would be all that interesting. And, by all accounts, it wasn’t … until this last play.
But given that everyone from taxi drivers to the president of the United States is talking about this call, and that replays of this fateful play are now competing with campaign ads on TV, it would be remiss of me not to add my two-cents worth:
In short, the Seahawks were losing 7-12 with only eight seconds left on the clock when they went for the proverbial Hail Mary, which almost never works. Well, it worked … thanks to the confluence of a botched and a missed call on this one play.
Most critics insist that what the refs called a touchdown for the Seahawks was in fact an interception for the Packers that should have sealed their victory. I agree; this was the botched call, which was actually made manifest by one ref signaling touchdown and another touchback/interception simultaneously.
But it was their missed call that I found most interesting. Because it was clear that the Seahawks receiver literally shoved a Packers defender to the ground just to get his hand on the ball to force what appeared to be, but really was not, his joint reception with another Packers defender. The Seattle receiver should have been penalized for offensive pass interference. This would have rendered moot the ensuing controversy over whether there was a reception or a touchback/interception, and the Packers would have held on to win.
That said, much of the criticism of these replacement refs smacks of collective, hysterical amnesia. And, shamefully, it’s being stoked – not just by players trying to get away with intentional infractions on the field, but also by coaches trying to bully these refs from the sidelines.
Meanwhile, to listen to the critics you’d think the regular refs never botched or missed a call. Whereas, the irony is that we now have instant replay in Football precisely because regular refs were making many of the same mistakes replacements refs are now being pilloried for making.
Not to mention the glaring pass Cheeseheads are giving their Packers; after all, if they hadn’t played so poorly they would not have ended up at the mercy of this Hail Mary. Which is why it seems more like blame shifting than legitimate criticism for Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers to insinuate that, by using the replacement refs, the NFL is showing that it cares more about money than the integrity of the game.
But, apropos of this, I don’t blame the commissioner and owners for ignoring the Twittering mobs braying for them to throw the replacement refs under the bus. In point of fact, I suspect the commissioner and owners are savvy enough to appreciate that having sports fans rail against NFL games the way reality-TV fans rail against Here Comes Honey Boo Bo will only result in them laughing all the way to the bank: ka-ching, ka-ching.
No doubt, despite their carping, regular fans will continue to tune in; but now non-fans will do so too just to see what all the fuss and farce is all about. This ratings boon is why unionized refs are sadly misguided if they are banking on universal outrage among fans over bad calls forcing the owners to cave in to their demands.
What’s more, these replacement refs will get better with each game, and I predict that by mid-season these same fans will be as wistful for unionized refs as travelers are for the striking air-traffic controllers President Reagan famously replaced in the early 1980s.
Accordingly, my advice to the regular refs is to swallow your pride and settle (ASAP!) before you are not only permanently replaced but completely forgotten.