Stumbling, bumbling, clumsy,
awkward. These are just a few choice words that can be attributed to the
overall performance of the NFL’s new replacement refs so far this season.
Locked out since early June,
the NFL Referees Association has made little to no progress with the league in
negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement. Since then, a rag-tag
collection of referees with resumes ranging from the Lingerie Football League to
Division II football has been utilized in order to keep the NFL as organized as
possible as the regular full-time refs are left to wait in unemployment limbo.
If this situation sounds a
bit familiar, that’s because it sort of is. A dispute between NFL owners and
players threatened to end the 2011 NFL campaign before it even began as players
were unable to practice or participate in team activities. An agreement was
reached before any games became direct victims of the lockout however.
Counting the pre-season,
we’ve now experienced five weeks of football with replacement refs running the
show and since then, we’ve seen more than a few bouts of sloppiness by the men
in zebra stripes.
University of Phoenix Stadium
was the site of the NFL replacement refs’ biggest screw-up thus far as the
Seahawks took on the Cardinals on Sunday.
With Seattle trailing 20-16
and threatening to take the lead with just seconds remaining on the game clock,
the unthinkable happened.
Pete Carroll’s Seahawks were
accidentally ‘awarded’ an extra timeout by the replacement officials after
Carroll had mistakenly requested a fourth one following a Marshawn Lynch run
with 30 seconds remaining.
The slip-up led to a roughly
five minute break in the action as the officials scrambled around conversing
with each other in a feeble attempt to correct their error.
What brought insult to injury
was the fact that the referee who granted Seattle an extra timeout used his
microphone to announce to the crowd that no mistakes were made, only to admit
after the game that he in fact was wrong and was at fault.
As crippling an error as it
already is, the replacement refs would be under far more scrutiny today had the
Seahawks found the end zone and won the game because the extended timeout
allowed Seattle extra time to organize their game plan for the waning seconds
of the ballgame.
If you’re an avid NFL fan,
you’ve likely picked up on various other officiating mistakes around the league
so far, more minor in scale than a team having four timeouts at their disposal
but nonetheless mind-boggling and potentially game altering.
In fact, as
I wrote this column, after an automatic scoring review, Ravens receiver Anquan
Boldin’s 34-yard touchdown catch from Joe Flacco on Monday Night Football stood
as called despite a clear slow-motion replay revealing that Boldin had lost
control of the ball as he hit the ground.
Another
mistake that showcased the inexperience of the replacement crews occurred at
the end of the second Monday night game, between the Chargers and Raiders.
Up 22-14
with just seconds remaining on the clock, San Diego lined up to punt the ball
away harmlessly on fourth down.
Oakland
rushed their men onto the field but forgot a return man. Seeing this, the
Chargers downed the ball and time expired.
However,
rules indicate that if the game ends on a punt and the punting team first
touches the ball, the returning team (Raiders) should be granted one untimed
play.
As unlikely
as a 95-yard touchdown and subsequent two-point conversion are, the fact that
the referees were unaware of this rule and cost the Raiders one last shot is
troubling.
Overall
there were mistakes aplenty from the replacement refs in Week 1, carrying over
from their sloppy pre-season showing. Missed penalties, penalties that
shouldn’t have been called, incomplete passes being ruled fumbles, forgetting
to reset play clocks and forcing teams to call timeouts, the list goes on.
With word
from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell that he expects the replacement refs to
stick until at least Week 5 and perhaps beyond, there is no immediate end to
this referee identity crisis in sight.
The NFL
surely is going to have to disregard a whole lot of video and photographic
evidence if they expect to convince their fans that their scab officials are
not shafting their fans’ favorite football teams.
The ultimate
irony is that the NFL has been in the forefront regarding use of instant replay
so as to “make the right call”. The use of replacement refs renders those words
more of an empty promise.
