Replacement Officials

Everybody thought that a bad holding call here, a defensive pass interference call there was bad during the first three weeks of the NFL season. Man, were we wrong.

Before I continue onward into any bashing of the replacement referees this season, I will say that before last night, September 24, 2012, I didn’t hold much against the replacements and honestly thought they were doing a mediocre job for being thrown into a situation that they were no where near qualified for (past jobs for some refs included the Lingerie Football League, and bowl sub-division college games, ex. Division II, or III.) The reason I backed them the way I did is simple, all referees are going to make mistakes, plain and simple. If the NFL hadn’t even told us that these were replacements I’m sure there is not a large population of people out there who would have even thought twice about it. Players and coaches have gotten frustrated with a few calls in some games that led to fines of a few coaches (Kyle Shannahan of the Redskins, John Fox of the Bronco’s) but the players had not lashed out. Then Monday Night Football rolls around. If there’s one time these refs are going to make a mistake it sure as hell better not be on Monday night, primetime football, with national coverage on ESPN. As a viewer, you didn’t know what you were in for.

When the game started, it went about it self as any other NFL game would, between the Green Bay Packers, and the under-dog Seattle Seahawks. Surprisingly the Seahawks were up 7-0 at halftime after a Russell Wilson touchdown pass to Golden Tate. The second half came and went and the game was very entertaining, great defense by both sides. Now, probably the first questionable call came when Kam Chancellor, a safety for the Seahawks was flagged for a defensive pass interference call on a vital third and short down. To many it looked like he just played great defense, but the refs saw otherwise, and awarded Green Bay with a first down. Green Bay then scored a touchdown to increase their lead to 12-7 with close to nine minutes remaining in the game. The next penalty came on a first and twenty-five for the Seahawks when Wilson threw a deep pass to Sidney Rice and Sam Shields was called for the same foul, which also looked clean, but many probably saw it as a make up call. Eventually, the Seahawks went on to stall their drive after Golden Tate dropped a fourth and three in the Green Bay end zone. The Seahawks defense then stopped the Packers and forced a punt. This is when things decided to take a turn for the worse and the replacement refs did everything in their power to make sure that the entire world knew they didn’t belong in this league. Russell Wilson rolled out and made himself some time on a fourth and ten from the Green Bay twenty-four yard line and heaved up a prayer. Somehow his prayer was answered. A pile of Green Bay secondary players and Seattle wide receivers jumped up for the ball and it seemed as if M.D. Jennings of the Packers had come away with a game ending interception, but Golden Tate did have his arms on the ball as well. About five seconds went by while viewers, including myself, stared at the television anxiously waiting on the refs to make the call. The first call you see is a line-judge signaling touchdown. I went insane; realizing I may have just witnessed one of the most amazing plays in Monday Night Football history. But then the worst thing that could have possibly happened, happened. And almost a second after the touchdown was called. The back-judge was right next to the line-judge who made the touchdown call and even looked at him before he made the call, and made the signal for the clock to stop, which would mean that the Packers had intercepted the ball.

The NFL world was silenced right then. Everybody who knew the situation realized that this was the leagues worst fear. Letting the replacement referees determine the outcome of a game. Since the play was ruled a touchdown on the field there is no challenging/reviewing who has possession of a catch, the only thing that can change the play is if the player who catches the pass is out of bounds. But with these replacement referees, they still went and reviewed something that in un-reviewable and still the play was ruled a touchdown. 

Stated below are the official NFL rules that pertain to this play:

Article 3

Item 5: Simultaneous Catch…If a pass is caught simultaneously by two eligible opponents, and both players retain it, the ball belongs to the passers. It is not a simultaneous catch if a player gains control first and an opponent subsequently gains joint control. If the ball is muffed after simultaneous touching by two such players, all the players of the passing team become eligible to catch the loose ball.

If you watched the game and saw the play, or saw a replay I think it’s pretty conclusive that Golden Tate, and M.D. Jennings did not catch the ball “simultaneously”. It looked obvious, to the ESPN anchors covering the game and to myself, that Jennings had sole possession of the ball.

This will be the game everyone will talk about probably all year. We probably won’t stop hearing about it for a month, or until the referees and the league end the lockout and the real referees are back on the field. One has to wonder though, this all happened within a matter of seconds. Is it possible that if the real referees were officiating this game, would it have been called correctly? Personally, I don’t know, and we never will know. But let the league, players, coaches, and all the referees involved in this have their fun. Roger Goodell had better pay attention because it’s not the owners, or the players that run this league. It’s the fans, and we are not happy.

From here, it’s the NFL’s play. No fan, player, or coach can decide to end this lockout between the league and the officials. Only the owners and the leagues front office have that power. As a fan, I hope to get this fixed immediately before another game is tarnished like this and makes a mockery of the sport in general.

Works Cited

1. National Football League Rulebook. N.p.: n.p., 2012. 44. Web. 25 Sept. 2012. <www.nfl.com>.

****This has not yet been edited, so changes will come.