Roger Goodell (left), the owners, the league officials, and even the players must settle with the regular officials. It’s out of hand.
That’s it. Last straw. I was giving these replacement refs a little more of a benefit of the doubt until this colossal debacle tonight in Seattle. Green Bay won that game. Seattle had no business winning. Green Bay had already intercepted Russell Wilson in Seattle territory late in the fourth quarter to seal the game, but the stupid ref called some bogus late hit on Green Bay which was a clean shot on the quarterback right after he released it; almost simultaneously as he released it. Still after the Packers proved for 59:48 of play they were the superior team, they finished it off. At least it looked like they did. Wilson threw up a prayer from 24 yards away on the last play of the game and the Green Bay defensive back, M.D. Jennings, intercepted it. There was a struggle in the end zone for the ball in the end zone but Jennings had his arms around the ball and had it secured when he and Seattle wide receiver Golden Tate hit the turf. Tate had his hands on the ball and was trying to wrestle it away simultaneously, and it looked close coming down, but I thought in fast motion Jennings had it. And in slow motion, Jennings definitely had it. It was an interception and the Pack won the game. The back judge starting waving his arms above his head like he was about to signal an interception, but this other clown came in and called it a touchdown. The backjudge had the best look at it. That joker came out of nowhere and made that call. The replay clearly showed that Jennings had possession of the ball. But the idiots even got to look at it on replay from different angles and couldn’t get it right. I think they were scared to call it against Seattle for fear of being harmed physically by the Seattle fans and maybe even some of Seattle players. It would have taken some guts, but it was the right thing to do. Aaron Rodgers and the Pack were shellshocked. They had no idea what to do. Now if you say anything to these clowns you get fined. I know these guys are trying they’re best but they’re just not measuring up to the standard this game needs. This just can’t go on. This could cost the Packers the playoffs if it comes down to it at the end in the division of the wild care. Green Bay is a very good team, but it’s tough to win in the NFL any week. Every win is invaluable. Home field advantage is invaluable. For the Packers, if they make the playoffs–which they’re certainly good enough to but there are no guarantees– this could take away their home field advantage. These replacements refs are ruining the games right now. It’s not their fault. They’re just not qualified and the refs and the NFL need to reach an agreement.
The owners are just going to have to suck it up and pay these regular guys what they want. I know there are issues that need to be ironed out and I’m sure the league and the owners have very good arguments for docking the pensions of these guys and for the other issues they’re at odds on with the refs that we in the general public are not fully informed of. The regular refs want to keep their pension intact and the owners want to lower it significantly which is what is happening in the general market and how a lot of NFL employees have agreed to. But the owners have offered to up the refs compensation. It seems like the NFL is making concessions, but these refs won’t budge on their demands. I don’t like unions for the most part. They can protect people at times from abuse by dishonest management but they can also be destructive. Maybe the players will be so fed up with this that they’ll try to chip in and help solve this critical problem. Wish we could fire these striking refs, but that won’t work. We’ve got to get them back. There has to be resolution on the league’s part. The striking officials have to be distraught with the way these games are being destroyed by incompetency. Fights all over the field; it’s chaos. The players could help this situation themselves by offering to chip in $5K or $10K some of their exorbitant salaries. Maybe the Manning brothers, Drew Brees, Tom Brady and the other very wealthy players could get together and chip in a chunk and go in with the owners and get this mess resolved. That was a travesty tonight. Inexcusable. The league can’t have this happen any more. They MUST settle with these refs for the good of the game.