THE REPLACEMENTS

Ruffle My Feathers, a weekly sports column by Justin Lewis

THE REPLACEMENTS

Monday Night Football was a joke. Once again it came down to The REPLACEMENTS. There were “phantom calls”(calls that are made to seem like something was there/really happened but it didn’t) going on all night for both sides but the most important no-call came during the last play of the game. While the ball was in the air the Seattle Wide out blatantly shoved a defender onto the ground while “pursuing” the Hail-Mary pass. I put pursuing in quotes because that’s ALL he did. Then the other Green Bay defender jumped up and caught the ball and maintained control of it the whole time (while in the air and while on the ground). The Seattle Wideout NEVER touched the ball; he only grabbed the ARM of the Green Bay defender. Last time I checked wide receivers want to catch the football NOT an arm. It was then called a touchdown by one referee but another official said it was an interception. So of course the REPLACEMENTS went to review the play and even after looking at the play for 3 minutes they came to the conclusion thatSeattle had the ball even though every angle showed NOTHING of the sort. How do you mess up a call in Real-Time AND when you are reviewing it IN SLOW MOTION. There is no way that we the viewers at home AND the analysts (who were 15 feet away) could possibly have a better angle than the officials who were watching it IN THE BOOTH!

So that game (which was a great game up until the last 5 minutes of the 4^th quarter aka “Referee Spotlight/Close-up Time”) was GIVEN to the Seahawks. Also research shows that this same team of referees was the same bunch that officiated last Sunday’s game which featured the Rams and Redskins. That game was decided by an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty when a Redskin player threw a ball at the opposing tackler because the Ram player was trying to hold him down (AFTER the whistle) and twist his leg around. He shouldn’t have thrown the ball at the player but if they both were doing something wrong don’t call anything (off-setting penalties move on to the next play).

Of course we would expect the commissioner (who doesn’t deserve a name shout out) would step down from his throne and address this matter right? You would think he would take time to remedy this situation, but if we thought that we would most definitely be wrong. You want to know why? I’ll give you (2) reasons:

1.) He has more important things to worry about than players working hard and putting their bodies on the line only to have it snatched away from them. Like worrying about being right about “Bounty Gate” and getting signed affidavits from snitches (which is what he wants us to believe) who will incriminate associated players and subsequently keep them from maintaining/improving their livelihood.

2.) He also wants to ensure that he doesn’t admit fault (by rewarding Green Bay with that win when it clearly shows that the Seattle player only had control of the defenders BICEP, not the ball) or talk bad about the replacement referees he has placed in a no-win situation. Instead of owning up to the blatant blunder(s) he has committed he will continue to make the players fight all game long only to have his SCABS determine the outcome of the game.

The commissioner (who said the game’s outcome will be upheld) and the Owners should be held liable should some of these players get hurt. Houston Quarterback Matt Schaub took a shot to the head that knocked his helmet off as well as a part of his ear. Even though that hit was right in front of the referee it still wasn’t called a penalty but the league “banned” the defender for one game AND fined him $50,000; Darrius Heyward-Bey took a helmet to helmet hit this past Sunday and flopped to the ground like a dead body (not his fault) yet once again there was NO CALL made. Thankfully he is expected to make a full recovery; and I saw a Raiders player this past Sunday get pushed to the ground and then crawl and dive at Ben Roethlisberger’s knee. He could have blown his ACL/MCL out with that hit. I bet if that was Tom Brady (the guy you created the rule for regarding hits below the knees of quarterbacks) it would have been called. The commissioner and whoever is not paying the referees should be placed inside a room with the referees and their representatives until they come to an agreement because the players make this league commissioner; not you, your pride or your investors!

I have never seen so many coaches blatantly chew out referees like this. They have a certain silent agreement with the experienced referees (who have a combined 1000+ years of experience refereeing at this level). So are the coaches/players supposed to accept the fact that these new guys are untouchable and even though they are messing up no one should “approach” them? Honestly why should coaches/players be fined for “approaching” the referees? These SCABS (no offense) are affecting the livelihood of the coaches/players, yet you keep them (the referees) under this umbrella. Can the requests of the GOOD referees be so bad:

Higher average salary (They average $25,000 – $70,000 a year give or take playoff games and the Super Bowl). They can only referee one game a week BUT the NFL is making a lot of money ($4 billion +) AND the Pop Warner referees they have now need to be removed.
Pension Plan
- “The official’s work about 36 hours a week — nearly full time — and pension benefits have become an important issue to them. It would probably cost each team about $100,000 to settle the pension issue.”
- They really want the pension plan. The league wants the officials to move from a defined benefit retirement plan (pension) to a defined contribution plan (401k). The NFLRA offered the compromise of having new officials on a 401k plan, with the old officials grandfathered in under the old rules, but of course the league hasn’t accepted that.

I have a simple solution for all of this. Since you fine the players/coaches so much why doesn’t that money go to the REAL referees (Of course it may get messy but at least I have an idea). I’m sure the players wouldn’t mind that money going to something that would keep themWALKING and KNOWING THEIR NAME for the rest of their lives!

Now I am not mad the current referees for taking the job opportunity because it’s a rare opportunity to jump over the fence so to speak, but the speed of the game is like going from riding a bicycle to flying a F-15 Eagle (Jet). There’s no way these referees were ready for this transition no matter how many books they read or the amount of film they watched. Again I am not mad at the referees for taking the jobs, but I am mad at whoever hired them because half (expletive) football is not good football. Sooner or later fans will stop watching the game and then what will you do Greedy Owners/Mr. Commissioner?