I’m still a little clueless about what happened at
the end of the Monday night game this week.
For those of you who somehow missed it because you had DVRed the Emmys,
the referees on the field awarded a touchdown to Seattle on the last play from
scrimmage. Receiver Golden Tate and
cornerback M.D. Jennings supposedly caught the ball simultaneously, which by
rule implies shared possession. Like “tie
goes to the runner” in baseball, the offensive player retains possession of the
ball.
I could go on a long time about the inaccuracy of
the call on the field, since clearly Jennings brought the ball to his body with
full possession. Placing two hands or
forearms on the ball while it’s held tight to the chest of another player does
not create “simultaneous possession.”
The inability of replacement refs, however, to follow a common sense
procedure doomed this call to the annals of the Tuck Rule and Tony Tarasco. Over the course of the season,
replacement refs, in an attempt to call games properly, conferenced
repeatedly. That many zebras in a group
would qualify as a herd, and the herd circled the wagons a lot these last three
weeks. But, last night, when one ref signaled
interception and the other signaled touchdown, no conference ensued, chaos
ensued. When two refs disagree like
that, they need to discuss the call on
the field, especially since replay apparently offers very little to
overturn a simultaneous catch ruling.
While the game reached new levels of weirdness with the Packers required
to return to the field for a meaningless extra point, the officials did not
adjudicate differences fairly. Somehow,
the two end zone officials did not talk, and then when they gave conflicting
signals, the rest of the crew didn’t talk amongst themselves. The head referee, minutes removed from a
miserable roughing the passer call, should have run straight for his crewmates,
not for the replay booth on the sideline.
In the end, while I as a football fan could not be
more appalled, the NFL deserves every minute of this pain. The experiment with replacement refs could
not have worked out any worse, and while we are discussing one regular season
game, it would not be shocking to see the Packers and Seahawks separated by one
game come playoff time, all due to a poor call.
Privately, I have given Roger Goodell praise for addressing player
safety using very tangible, thoughtful avenues without worrying about player
scorn. Right now, he looks like a
moron. A commissioner who watched last
night’s game should understand the damage being done to the brand of the
NFL. He should then call his head
negotiator (after a glass of hard stuff), and direct the team to give the
regular referees whatever they want.
Staunch the bleeding, stop the madness, fry the bacon…all these phrases
apply.
But, I said he should,
not that he would. Roger Goodell knows people will continue to
watch the games, even with poor officiating, so why feel compelled to bring
back the regular guys? Apparently,
significant gaps still exist between both parties, and it doesn’t appear doors
are being broken to mend those gaps, so we might be here for a while. At a certain point, we as fans may need to
look to the players for some kind of resolution. A players’ strike would be so unlikely, given
the foregone paychecks, but might force the hand of the NFL to change its
tune. At this point, that sounds as good
an option as any. Whatever happens, I
hope but do not expect the NFL to budge in bringing back the real
referees. Demand for the NFL remains
inelastic, with tons of people watching even if the product looks to be
flawed. Still, when it comes down to it,
the league banked on consistent ratings and figured officials wouldn’t change
that, even if they missed some calls. In
the media world, they refer to that as a ratings ploy. So, while we cry for the product and
integrity of football, we should heap scorn on a league that might have stopped
the madness many times but never did. Don't hold your breath, folks...we may see this again next week.
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