The Replacement NFL Refs

[Greenday]

Each week, it becomes more apparent that these refs do not know what they are doing and that they are incapable of doing the job. The penalty flags seem to just fall out of their pockets every play. They make shit up. They don't know the rules.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9OBoNtI3uI

Now, for those who don't follow American football, I'm going to explain to you what a touchback is. On a kickoff, if the ball goes in the end zone and the returner doesn't try to return it, it's a touchback and the ball starts on the 20 yard line. On a punt, same deal OR if the ball bounces untouched into the endzone it's a touchback. This punt bounces around the 10 and the punt team stops it at the four yard line. At NO point does it go near the endzone. Yet somehow, they called it a touchback.

Goodell needs to just give the refs what they want. It's such an insanely small chunk of money they are asking for and these replacement refs are ruining a season that hasn't even started.

[Hyena Dandy]

They're just guys doing their jobs. One of the things about good NFL refs is they tend not to call fouls that aren't egregious or majorly effecting play. There's holding damn near every play. But they only call it when it matters, or they can't pretend they dind't see it.

That said, unless the rules changed, come on...

[TheHuckster]

They're just guys doing their jobs. One of the things about good NFL refs is they tend not to call fouls that aren't egregious or majorly effecting play. There's holding damn near every play. But they only call it when it matters, or they can't pretend they dind't see it.

That said, unless the rules changed, come on...

This is a greivous and bizarre call, though. This isn't like the ball nearly crossed the plane of the endzone or even if the player himself caught it right on the end zone, it was clearly on the 4-yard-line. Mr. Magoo could have called this play correctly.

I really have no idea what was on this ref's mind. Is it possible that during the preseason refs are being considered for a regular season job as well and might get cut after 4 weeks of preseason?

[Greenday]

I doubt it. All of these refs have experience refereeing football somewhere or another. One of the replacement refs in the Jets game tonight was a Division 2 ref (which doesn't thrill me).

But the rules aren't exactly the same as college football. The speed of the game is a lot faster in the NFL. These refs just can't seem to pick it up.

Speaking of replacement refs blowing big calls, Cam Newton slipped and hit the ground. No one touched him as he got up. Then once his knees were off the ground, a Jet punched the ball out of his hand and the Jets recovered. Refs ruled him down by contact and obviously the Jets challenged it.

[Hyena Dandy]

Yeah. Cam Newton slips and recovers himself, okay, hey, that's understandable. These guys don't have the training, but you know what, as long as they can get the calls right, I'll let them go through the preseason. They can have a pass on some of the tougher things. Like "A quarter can end on a foul, but a half can't."

Even "That was incomplete. Wait, no, he caught it" because, well, you're watching this really fast movement, and not from a very good angle either.

But I can't UNDERSTAND how you get that call wrong. The ball wasn't in the endzone. None of the players were in the endzone.. And I've seen professional football, highschool football, college football, and even women's touch football, and I can't think of ANY rule set that would say "Within the 5 = Touchback"

[mikoyan29]

One of the coolest things about taking pictures at the Eastern Michigan spring game was getting the chance to see the Refs practice as well. The head ref there was telling them about positioning and watching the plays as they develop so that they knew where to go. So in order to be a ref, you have to know as much about the game as the players do.

[crashhelmet]

What's confusing the hell out of me about all of these bad calls is that these refs are supposed to be refs from other leagues, like Arena, High School, College, UFL, etc. These calls they're getting wrong are fundamental across the board. I wonder if they're screwing up on purpose. Union pressure?

But the regular refs need to be held accountable for their horrible calls. People say they are, but there's no real evidence of it.

You have officials like Bill Leavy who butchered the officiating in SuperBowl XL, he botched it again in the playoffs the next year in the Colts vs Ravens game, and then again in the Giants vs Packers game in this past year's playoffs.

You also have Walt Coleman and his famous "Tuck Rule" call or his horrible officiating in the Packers vs Vikings game that same year, or the 49ers vs Colts game the next year.

Their crews are famous for bad calls in big games, yet they still get playoff games every year. Where's the accountability? All I see is Union Seniority.

I understand that there are penalties that go uncalled on every play, like holding. As long as they're not blatant, I can live with that. But when you have penalties called or plays stopped or scores awarded or disputed, with no apparent punishment greater than a slap on the wrist, people get fed up.

I think they should be made full time positions. Pay them a salary that justifies how important their position is to the game, and use that same justification to fine and or suspend them for bad calls.

[Greenday]

Bump for "Holy fucking shit, I cannot watch the NFL anymore as long as the replacement refs are there"

The dissenters have been saying the refs bad calls haven't changed the results of any games. Well, tonight at the Seattle/Green Bay game, the Packers were winning 12-7. On the final drive of the game, one play a Seattle WR grabbed a Packers DB and held him. It should have been offensive pass interference but it was called defensive pass interference. Gave Seattle a ton of yards. On the final play of the game, the Seattle QB tosses it up into the end zone. A Seattle WR shoves a Packer's DB to the ground (offensive pass interference), him and four others jump up for it, and a Packers DB catches the ball. The refs incorrectly call it a catch for Seattle. They review it and still somehow call it a TD even though a blind person could have seen it wasn't a touchdown. Seattle wins the game 14-12.

I am done with the NFL until these refs are out. The replacement refs made bad call after bad call against the Jets this weekend and tried to give the win to Miami but the Jets still pulled it off in overtime. They threw flags on stuff that clearly didn't happen giving Miami chance after chance to win the game.

I'm boycotting the NFL.

Edit: blas, how pissed are you?

Edit #2: Got the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pt7Cjexvy38

[Racket_Man]

with the bogus offensive pass interference call and that "touchdown" call we were literally screaming for blood at the TVs at work tonight.

replay after replay after replay showed a fair interception by the GB player

[AdminAssistant]

This is ridiculous. One of my FB friends suggested that all the teams just play their practice squads until the real refs are back. We're big GB fans, so you can imagine how our night went.

[blas87]

Eh...I had been listening to the game in my car on the way to my boyfriend's house after shopping last night (it's a decent drive, so I listened for most of the second quarter), and my bf doesn't have regular TV, so I just used my app on my phone for play by plays. We went to bed before the game was over.

And I am so happy we did. That's just retarded.

[TheHuckster]

It's quite amazing how horrible it is virtually everywhere. I don't think there was a single NFL game this entire season so far that didn't have a very controversial call.

Controversial calls that affect games is nothing new in the NFL, but the officials who made them at least managed to maintain some level of respect, because they clearly do the best they can and it doesn't happen in every single game.

Now you've got teams being given extra timeouts, extra challenges, bogus TD calls, and absolutely horrendous interference and holding calls. You could grab a linebacker by the face mask, and slam him to the ground "Puny God Hulk Style" without a flinch by the officials in one play, and then in another play if you just happen to exchange static discharge with an opposing player you'll get flagged for it.

These officials are not commandeering respect. How could you if you can't even get the teams' names right and lose track of how many challenges each team is allowed?

I watched the Sunday Night game between the Pats and Ravens, and virtually every play in the second half had a flag against either team. You had one against the Ravens coach who wanted to call timeout, and another against a Patriots safety who barely touched the receiver, but gave the opposing team a new set of downs deep in Patriots territory.

The local (New England) sports talk was mentioning that it was hard to tell who the better team was between the Ravens and the Patriots because the officiating was so bad, the game was really decided on who happened to get worse calls against them, and it was really close. The Pats didn't play their best, for sure, and even without the poor ref calling, we might have still lost, but the game was so fucked up, who could tell? So many of the first downs in that game on both sides were given by the officials because of non-existent holding and interference penalties!

There have been close games in the past that got fucked up by a single bad call by the refs, whether it's a bad spot, a penalty that shouldn't have been called, or a fumble/recovery that should have been ruled dead that wasn't reviewable. But at least in the end you could tell, "Oh, TeamX should have won that game if it wasn't for that call!" In these cases, it's "Well, if they hadn't made those consecutive series of horrible calls in the beginning of the fourth quarter on that scoring drive, followed by the kickoff that went out of bounds but didn't get penalized, followed by the so-called 'fumble' that was recovered by the defense for a touchdown, we might have gotten away a winner, who who the fuck knows?"

[AdminAssistant]

Yeah, it wasn't just the final interference/TD call. It was the blatant pass interference from Golden Tate seconds before. It was the offensive pass interference that was called on the defense a few plays prior. It was the blatant facemask grabbing.

Someone on Reddit theorized that the refs wanted to overturn the call, but were afraid of the home team. (Seattle is apparently known for having a hostile home field?) Pitiful.

[Greenday]

The refs are very easily persuaded by home crowds. Watch any game. Crowd calls for a penalty, the refs respond and throw the flag. Player claims he was fouled against and asks the refs to call a penalty, the refs do it. It's pathetic.

[TheHuckster]

NFL admits error in Seahawks-Packers game but upholds result

I would understand this decision if it happened any time before the end of the game, because it's impossible to tell how the course of the game would have proceeded had they ruled it differently, but this has to be infuriating to any Packers fan and disturbing to any NFL watcher who's really counting on fairness as much as possible.