On September 24, 2012, the Seattle Seahawks and the Green Bay Packers competed in just an average, ordinary NFL Monday Night football game. It was an excellent defensive game, and, arguably, one of the best games of this NFL season. But the game took a turn for the worst when an officiating error cost the Green Bay Packers the game and sent ripples of anger, confusion and mass chaos to the entire NFL fanbase.
The Seahawks were losing 7-12 when Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson had them on the 24-yard line with 8 seconds left in the game. Wilson rounded out of the pocket and launched a Hail Mary bomb to the endzone hoping for a game-winning touchdown. In the corner of the endzone a cluster of players gathered for an attempt to catch the ball. The ball was “intercepted” by Packers corner M.D. Jennings, but a Seahawks receiver, Golden Tate, also had a piece of the ball. In the replay (which I have seen hundreds of times) you could clearly tell that Jennings had the ball tucked into his chest, which meant a clear interception.
Two replacement officials ran over to make the call. One official, a back judge, made eye contact over the ball with the side judge signaling he believes it was an interception. However the side judge threw his hands up in the classic touchdown signal. By rule, the officials had to get together and review the play to make the final decision.
This is where it got ugly. The head official of the game came out and announced, “After review of the play, the play stands as confirmed. Touchdown. The game is over.”
Bull.
It was not bad when the officials originally called a touchdown because of the mass confusion and speed of the game. But after they reviewed the play, and they clearly saw that the Packer’s corner intercepted the ball, they still were idiotic enough to call a touchdown.
This isn’t the first incident this season. I cannot even begin to think about how long this article would be if I listed every mistake these officials have made.
The reason these replacement officials are officiating an NFL game is because the original officials are “locked out” from refereeing any games because of their dispute with the NFL lead office. So the NFL brings in these “fifth-string refs,” as they call them, to fill in for the actual officials. Some of these officials officiate high school games like ones here in Alliance. On ESPN they were talking to one of these officials who just got done officiating a high school football game on Friday night and two days later he was off to ref an NFL football game. Imagine that.
In some ways it is very hard to watch an NFL game knowing there is a big chance that an inexperienced official might screw it up. The NFL Lead Office and Commissioner Roger Goodell are taking full media scrutiny as the cause of this “referee lock-out.” ESPN writer Rick Rielly said after the game. “The NFL is like a beautiful painting of the Mona Lisa. And they’re (The NFL Lead Office) putting a mustache on it.”
It seems as if the NFL has turned these replacement football officials into pure criminals and fools. I’m sure these guys are great people, but now everywhere they go they are going to get criticized for the bad calls they made in situations they are not very experienced in.
No matter what, we are still going to watch football. The ratings will stay the same. But folks, it’s just not right. Football should be played fairly and we, as fans, should not be worried if the official will make the right call or not, and we certainly should not be worried if they’ll cost our team the game or not. This has to end, but we can’t control that. It’s up to the official’s union and the NFL to get a deal done. It could happen as early as today. But I, for one, want football back, the right way.
UPDATE: Two days after the Monday Night debacle, the NFL Lead Office and the NFL Referees Association reached an agreement and the regular NFL officials will return for every game for the rest of the season.
