NFL Replacement refs...What if?

[buckeyebri]

I think the reaction to the replacements has been over the top and the perception of the "skills" of the NFL refs is being greatly exaggerated in their absence. People bitched and moaned about them every week.

Suddenly, bitching and moaning about officials is unprecedented and last night was the first time a blown call decided a game. Please, let's not pretend either is the case.

I agree with you Jake, this is a media driven firestorm and who better to lead it than our boys at ESPiN. And on que they have now added a segment showing all the blown calls in major sports over the years. And you know that if this had gone the other way, well we just may be hearing a lot about simultaneous possession being the rule. In fact, I heard one of the local media hacks here in Indy taking the approach that there was simultaneous possession and that the ball goes to the offense. Nobody ever loved the real referees before this.

 

[Buckeye86]

I agree with you Jake, this is a media driven firestorm and who better to lead it than our boys at ESPiN. And on que they have now added a segment showing all the blown calls in major sports over the years. And you know that if this had gone the other way, well we just may be hearing a lot about simultaneous possession being the rule. In fact, I heard one of the local media hacks here in Indy taking the approach that there was simultaneous possession and that the ball goes to the offense. Nobody ever loved the real referees before this.

I recall being unfortunate enough to be listening to or reading something from ESPN during the preseason where they were going on about how "player safety" was in jeopardy because of the replacement refs (and keep in mind this was before a single snap had ever been played and they came up with something that stupid with no basis other than speculation).

I said at the time that someone must be slipping ESPN some money under the table to push that message and it looks like they still are.

 

[buckeyesin07]

Jerry sounds like a guy partial to the NFLRA, and not surprisingly so. The suggestion is they should get whatever they want, otherwise it's an insult.

Nothing particularly earth-shattering or elightening there. It sounds like typical rhetoric used during a labor dispute.

I agree that Jerry's partial, but I would characterize this as earth-shattering:

It took me 20 years to get into the National Football League, working every level of football. These guys have had the rule book for three months.

especially when you consider that Goodell evidently thinks the replacements are a suitable substitute.

 

[buckeyesin07]

Suddenly, bitching and moaning about officials is unprecedented and last night was the first time a blown call decided a game. Please, let's not pretend either is the case.

Let's not pretend that you really can't grasp the points being made in posts #102 and #104 in this thread.

 

[Fungo Squiggly]

I recall being unfortunate enough to be listening to or reading something from ESPN during the preseason where they were going on about how "player safety" was in jeopardy because of the replacement refs (and keep in mind this was before a single snap had ever been played and they came up with something that stupid with no basis other than speculation).

I said at the time that someone must be slipping ESPN some money under the table to push that message and it looks like they still are.

Have any players complained about the safety? Because that would really make me laugh, since they are the ones who keep hurting each other.

 

[LitlBuck]

Pat Shurmur doesn't worry about how the replacement officials are going to affect Browns games

BEREA, Ohio -- The sporting world is talking about the controversial ending of the Seattle Seahawks' 14-12 win over the Green Bay Packers on Monday night, but Browns coach Pat Shurmur didn't want to go anywhere near addressing the performance of replacement referees in the NFL.

"I've got a lot of thoughts, but no comments," Shurmur said today.

Shurmur said he counsels the Browns to not worry about who is officiating the game -- or anything else outside of the team's control.

"We don't worry about all that," he said. "Just like we don't worry about playing on the road. There's distractions playing on the road, there's distractions everywhere. You don't worry about it. You worry about what you have to do to win the game. You have to insulate yourself from that and go play."

Shurmur

 

[cjmik_75]

What is referee 84 doing? The still pic looks like he is in the process of waving incomplete. I guess he could be getting ready to go up and down for a touchback...

In any event if you fix replay it is not an issue.

QFT

 

[Bucklion]

I think the reaction to the replacements has been over the top and the perception of the "skills" of the NFL refs is being greatly exaggerated in their absence. People bitched and moaned about them every week.

Suddenly, bitching and moaning about officials is unprecedented and last night was the first time a blown call decided a game. Please, let's not pretend either is the case.

Are you really going to tell me you don't notice a difference? Of course people always bitched about refs, but the quality of officiating is so laughably bad right now it is comical.

 

[BayBuck]

Jerry sounds like a guy partial to the NFLRA, and not surprisingly so. The suggestion is they should get whatever they want, otherwise it's an insult.

Nothing particularly earth-shattering or elightening there. It sounds like typical rhetoric used during a labor dispute.

Peter King points out this isn't just about the extra peanuts the refs want added to their pensions:

One of the emerging and major reasons why a deal has been so elusive, according to the source, is that the NFL is insisting on getting some control of the officials back that it has ceded in past negotiations with the NFLRA. This includes the league's desire to have three seven-man officiating crews in reserve with the ability to replace -- either for a game or longer -- underperforming current officials.

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Another source with knowledge of the locked-out officials' position said Tuesday that the NFL would not guarantee that they would work at least 15 games in a regular season. Currently, other than due to injury, an official that starts a season works the full season. The officials source said that this is the main crux of what the NFL is trying to do in these negotiations: wrest back control of the officials' performance week to week in an NFL season. I've been told that the NFL is insisting on being able to make in-season changes to crews based solely on performance of individual officials.​

For those who would say in the wake of the officiating debacle in Monday night's game in Seattle that the NFL should give the officials whatever they want to settle the dispute, the league source said that, in effect, the NFL is willing to look at the dispute as something like a game of chess vs. a game of checkers. The league believes that the short-term pain of a football nation up in arms will be worth it two to four years down the road if they can improve the overall quality of officiating by adding what would be a taxi squad of three additional crews. In other words, it's likely that Goodell understands that solving the lockout by abandoning the demand for the extra officials would be a popular move today, but the NFL would still have what it considers the problem of not being able to replace underperforming officials.
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http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/20...egotiations/index.html?sct=hp_t2_a2&eref=sihp​

 

[Buckeye86]

Peter King points out this isn't just about the extra peanuts the refs want added to their pensions:

So if ESPN is getting money under the table from someone who supports the union, obviously Peter King is getting some hefty checks from the NFL.

 

[Jake]

The NFL had a great chance today to maintain a sense of integtrity when they could've overturned the Seattle "victory", but instead tucked their tails between their legs and said there wasn't indisputible evidence to verturn the review booth decision.

Overturning the victory would've maintained integrity? Hell, they've sent out letters of apology after blown calls in Super Bowls but they didn't overturn the victory.

Do that once and every team who loses a close game will be looking for an appeal on the outcome the next morning because - believe it or not - refs blow calls every week and have been doing so since day one.

There's no crying in football. At least there wasn't until the all-knowing, all-powerful "real" officials didn't take the field.

 

[BayBuck]

So if ESPN is getting money under the table from someone who supports the union, obviously Peter King is getting some hefty checks from the NFL.

I'll accept a hefty check myself to arbitrate this mess: the refs get their pension money, the NFL gets more control over ref performance, the replacement refs get back their jobs at Citgo. Done and done.

 

[Jake]

Are you really going to tell me you don't notice a difference? Of course people always bitched about refs, but the quality of officiating is so laughably bad right now it is comical.

I don't think the "difference" is anywhere close to the dramatic presentation of it. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and that's what is happening in the case of the "real" officials.

Regardless, I think the national hysteria over this situation is laughable.

 

[Jake]

Let's not pretend that you really can't grasp the points being made in posts #102 and #104 in this thread.

I grasp those points just fine.

At no point have I said there is no difference between the "real" officials and the replacements. I said the difference is being exaggerated, and the emotional reactions to it are completely over the top.

The longer this thread rails on about it the more convinced I become of that point of view. People are losing their minds over something that, at the end of the day, isn't really that important. If it feels hugely important, a little perspective is in order.

 

[Bucklion]

I don't see anyone losing their minds. We're talking about it because it has obviously been a factor the last 2 days. When Saturday rolls around, I imagine we'll be talking Buckeyes again.