Wrong Call

Normally at this time of year cutting the grass once a week is the norm but that isn't the case this year.  I missed the news because I had to cut slow because the grass has nearly the perfect weather.  Warm sunny days and cool damp nights.  About the only thing slowing it down is the shorter days.  Anyway, on to tonight's complaint.  It has to do with the controversial call in last night's NFL football game.


If you haven't seen or heard about the last play of the game I suggest you look it up.  The only place that I watched it online today was ESPN and they were only showing one angle.  I saw another on the local news just before heading out the door.  The issue that I have comes from the complaint that the call had to do with the replacement referees in the game.  This is where my opinion really differs from anyone else that I have spoke with.  I am not sure that the regular referees would have called it differently.  The rule regarding simultaneous possession doesn't really have to do with the end of the play.  That is where everyone is making their decision, when the players are on the ground.  The rule states that if 2 players gain possession at the same time it doesn't matter how they end up when on the ground, it is the offensive player who is awarded the catch.  It is a judgement call as to whether or not they had simultaneous possession or not.  In real time I'm not sure the regular referees would not have made the same call.  And based on every angle that I have seen I don't think there is enough evidence to overturn the call on the field no matter what call was made.

I am sure that the result would have been different though, but not for the same reason as everyone else.  Something that the replacement referees did miss was the offensive pass interference.  The result would be that the catch would be eliminated no matter the call.

And this leads to the bigger picture.  When will the NFL and the regular referees come to an agreement.  I am not a fan of unions at all and this is a perfect example of why.  They create a separation between management (the NFL) and the laborers (the referees) as they both believe that they are making huge compromises.  The truth is that nothing good will come out of this.  My opinion is that the replacement referees are going to continue to get better which gives the NFL an advantage.  However, it will not help the NFL at all if someone gets hurt because these referees are not controlling the game properly, advantage referees.  The ones who suffer from this are the players because they may get hurt and the fans because they feel cheated due to questionable calls by the replacement referees.

No matter if you agree with my opinion or not you can agree with me that the NFL and the referee union need to come to an agreement soon.  If they don't the damage may be too great for the NFL to recover from.