The Replacement Refs

[Puff Daddy]

I haven't spent a dime on NFL football this season and probably won't.

Ah, but in the world of televised sports, if you've watched, you've spent. The advertising dollars sold for your viewing time is the money, and the only way to not spend is to not watch. Ratings are the checkbook balance for the NFL.

I don't want to be a hypocrite here, so full disclosure. It's not a big issue for me personally, at least not yet. If the ref thing gets too stupid, I'll just not watch anymore. I can't afford to be a full blown NFL junkie, though I'd like to be. I work too much and too many odd hours, and I have a wife and kids. If I can sneak in some fottball a few hours a week, I'm lucky. On opening sunday I was watching the PGA Fedex cup championship and peeking at football during commercials. I try to watch what looks like a good game when I see one coming on the TV, but I don't follow any one team or worry ifmthere isn't one on, I'll wait til mon, thurs, next week... Also, in California we're stuck watching Raiders game, Niners game every sunday, so that leaves only one other day game to choose from. It makes it hard to be a league fan.

 

[idbowman]

It makes it hard to be a league fan.

Yep. Not to get things more off track than they are, but the broadcast schedule is yet another reason I turn to the NCAA. The entertainment value (for me) is such that if the Browns aren't on, I've kind of lost interest/focus/attention/connection/blah with the rest of the league...but I can sit down and watch pretty much any college game that's on the tube, whether the Wolverines are playing or not. Factor in the disparity in variety of televised games, and it's not surprising that college ball earns more of my attention year in and year out.

 

[puros_bran]

Puff o didly.. the niners are worth watching this year... Probably the best I've seen since the Young era.. on the D side maybe as good as the Young era.


Re: NCAA football.. you mean NFL JV? No thanks, that's even more effed than NFL.. even though I am following The Cards pretty close this year... Tomorrow they will be 4-0.. hehe

 

[Puff Daddy]

Yeah, the niners have an outstanding team going. We'll see if Smith has what it takes to be a great "Game Management" QB, and if that's going to be enough when he goes up against the other great defensive teams. Going down the playoff stretch, late in the game, two scores down, you need a playmaking QB. Will he have what it takes?

Sometimes I have to force myself to enjoy watching the niners. i spent most of my youth a Raiders fan, so it's tough to enjoy watching the niners win. I appreciate them, but I still find myself rooting for the Falcons or the Cowboys to screw with them late in the year :twisted:

 

[puros_bran]

Now you know how I feel about the Steelers. Lol

 

[Anonymous]

And the heck of it is they keep giving you grounds for optomism. Teams others beat by 24 we beat by 3 in cliffhangers.

They must figure it's not fun if people aren't on the edges of their seats holding their breath.

Except for one stretch in '76 and Ben's first year it's been like that pretty much since 1974.

:face:

 

[puros_bran]

Your just jealous of The Kardiac Kids

 

[Anonymous]

We've got our own now :lol!:

:face:

 

[Anonymous]

MEMORANDUM
TO: Owners of NFL Teams
FROM: NFLPA Executive Committee
DATE: September 20, 2012
RE: Your Lockout of the NFL Referees and the Negative Impact on Football

The NFL Players Association Executive Committee is calling on you to end the lockout of our referees. We believe there is substantial evidence that you have failed in your obligation to provide as safe a working environment as possible.

Your decision to lock out officials with more than 1,500 years of collective NFL experience has led to a deterioration of order, safety and integrity. This affirmative decision has not only resulted in poor calls, missed calls and bad game management, but the combination of those deficiencies will only continue to jeopardize player health and safety and the integrity of the game that has taken decades to build.

As we predicted and explained to you weeks ago, the removal of the veteran officials from regular season games left a group of your replacements who have proved to be incapable of keeping pace with the speed of the game. Coaches and players have complained of numerous errors and failures including: erratic and missed calls on egregious holds and hits, increased skirmishes between players and confusion about game rules. Many replacements have lost control of games due to inexperience and unfamiliarity with players and rules.

The headlines are embarrassing: a scab working a game despite having been on the payroll of one of the teams, another who was assigned to referee a team he publicly supported on Facebook, and one who is a professional poker player when you propose even more stringent player rules on gambling.

It is lost on us as to how you allow a Commissioner to cavalierly issue suspensions and fines in the name of player health and safety yet permit the wholesale removal of the officials that you trained and entrusted to maintain that very health and safety. It has been reported that the two sides are apart by approximately $60,000 per team.We note that your Commissioner has fined an individual player as much in the name of "safety." Your actions are looking more and more like simple greed. As players, we see this game as more than the "product" you reference at times. You cannot simply switch to a group of cheaper officials and fulfill your legal, moral, and duty obligations to us and our fans. You need to end the lockout and bring back the officials immediately.

We are all men who love and respect this game and believe that it represents something beyond just money. For our teammates, our coaches and our fans who deserve better, vote to end this lockout now.
Sincerely,

Domonique Foxworth, NFLPA President
Charlie Batch, NFLPA Vice President, Pittsburgh Steelers
Cornelius Bennett, NFLPA Former Players Board of Directors Chairman
Drew Brees, NFLPA Vice President, New Orleans Saints
Brian Dawkins, NFLPA Vice President
Scott Fujita, NFLPA Vice President, Cleveland Browns
Matt Hasselbeck, NFLPA Vice President, Tennessee Titans
Brandon Moore, NFLPA Vice President, New York Jets
Jeff Saturday, NFLPA Vice President, Green Bay Packers
Mickey Washington, NFLPA Former Players Board of Directors Member
Brian Waters, NFLPA Vice President, New England Patriots
Benjamin Watson, NFLPA Vice President, Cleveland Browns

:face:

 

[Anonymous]

These were only LAST week's.

http://deadspin.com/5944976/theyre-getting-worse-not-better-here-are-the-28-worst-replacement-official-mistakes-from-week-2?tag=scabwatch

This week was a bloodbath/riot (Oakland-Pittsburgh).

:face:

 

[scotties22]

OH MY DEAR LORD.....................What are these guys doing to my beloved football??????

The end of the MNF game was redonkulous :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:

The REAL REFS need to get over the fact that they only make 150K for a job that they work maybe two days a week for right around half the year. This is very very sad and frustrating as a fan.

It's really not the replacement's fault. They really are trying their best. They are not trained for the speed of the NFL. They are doing us, the fans, a service by working these games so we can watch them. But, COME ON....Someone needs to slap someone and get the real refs back

 

[puros_bran]

How bout Big Poppa G and the rest of the billionaire owners or the 1800 millionaire players get up off some dough and pay these guys what they are apparently worth ... AND. the didn't leave, Big Poppa G locked them out.. big big Huge HUGE diff

 

[riff raff]

Wow, the Pack did get ripped on that Hail Mary.

 

[idbowman]

That was the right call, I think...well, ok, they missed a pretty clear offensive pass interference call, but those go uncalled almost all the time on those last play of the game scrums.

I know everyone, everywhere is complaining about the TD call, but it was a good call. Possession isn't "official" until a receiver/defender touches down with the ball; by the time the players' feet hit the ground, both the receiver and the defender had a claim to possession; simultaneous possession is always awarded to the offense. Silly as it seems, the fact that the defender seems to have had the ball "first" and seemed to have better positioning of the ball once they came down with it, the rules are written to take that into effect. I'm pretty sure if the usual refs where calling that, the result would have been the same.

 

[Anonymous]

SEATTLE — Golden Tate shoved a Green Bay defender out of the way, wrestled another for the ball and was awarded a disputed touchdown on the final play.

But it was another 10 minutes before the game actually ended, when the Seattle Seahawks and the stunned Packers were called back on the field for the extra point.

Replacement ref rage may have peaked Monday night.

Just when it seemed that NFL coaches, players and fans couldn’t get any angrier, along came a fiasco that trumped any of the complaints from the weekend. The Seahawks’ 14-12 victory featured one of the most bizarre finishes in recent memory and was certain to reignite frustrations over the locked-out officials.

“Don’t ask me a question about the officials,” Green Bay coach Mike McCarthy said. “I’ve never seen anything like that in all my years in football.

http://triblive.com/sports/steelers/2664736-85/tate-packers-seattle-wilson-bay-green-ball-possession-touchdown-field#axzz27U3LB2lV

:face:

 

[riff raff]

From what I read and listened to this AM, no one but Seahawks think that was a touchdown. The Green Bay defender had both hands and arms wrapped around the ball. I havent heard or read from anyone who thinks they got that call right. What a travesty, it is time to start boycotting the NFL.

 

[Buckshot]

From what I read and listened to this AM, no one but Seahawks think that was a touchdown. The Green Bay defender had both hands and arms wrapped around the ball. I havent heard or read from anyone who thinks they got that call right.

Sure you have...idbowman thinks they got the call right.

 

[idbowman]

Yes indeed. In addition to my last post, I also posted the following on a different site:

" The rules don't account for whose catch looked more like a catch...if both have possession - chested, hands-only, behind the back, upside down, whatever - it's simultaneous possession. That's it. You don't get style points. Steve's right...spike the ball like you're taught to do, and the game ends on an incomplete pass. Basically, the only way that was truly an interception, according to the NFL rules, was if the catch was made ONLY by the defender and if ONLY the defender maintained possession at the end of the play; in this case, that didn't happen. He definitely caught it more "cleanly" than Tate but the rulebook doesn't account for that. You catch it or you don't - all or nothing, not by degrees.

The refs called it according to the rulebook. Believe me, I can't stand the replacement refs either, but IN THIS CASE, blame the rules, not the officials.

And yeah, that interference was pretty obvious - but be HONEST now...how often do those go uncalled on a last-play-of-the-game toss up in the end zone?"

Like it or not, the call was pretty much according to the rulebook - but since everyone has already developed such a negative attitude towards the replacement refs (and absolutely, positively, rightfully so), it's taken on a whole new meaning. Instead of a bizarre finish, or something for the ESPN Bizarre Plays file, it turns into a cause for a lynch mob.

 

[puros_bran]

Because New Jersey has nothing better to deal with.. http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE88O14V20120925?irpc=932

 

[mark]

Obviously we need separation of church, state, and sports.