Poll: Will You Continue To Watch NFL Games Officiated By Replacement Refs?

I think there's a lot of truth to that. Goodell has to feel like, "Really, you had to fuck up the MNF game?"

 

Chutzpah through the looking glass. Walker is worried this will gin up some more pro-union sentiment in Wisconsin will turn some close elections. I'm only half-kidding when I say that. Packers fans don't mess.

As for not watching the NFL, I don't know why that's such a radical concept. It's just one sport among many I enjoy, but I don't enjoy the shitshow its become. I'll still cover games because it's my job, but I'll watch something else on my own time. Life goes on, etc.

 

The last play last night was ridiculous, yes. But in some of the games I've watched. There's a flag, the announcers complain about "another penalty" and mention the replacement refs. Then they show a replay and it was, indeed, a penalty.

Somehow, I have gotten to this point without knowing exactly what the issue is between the league and the refs. Just did a quick search and it seems to be about a pension plan. I'll admit to being surprised they HAVE a pension plan. These are part-time jobs, highly paid part-time jobs. These guys work how much?? Maybe a little film study during the week. Fly in Saturday, fly out Sunday. I heard they make $8,000 a game (don't know the accuracy of that number). That AND a pension?? I mean, the pension is there and the NFL wants so take it away or scale it down, but still, it's a couple days a week job for about 6 months.

 

The final call was the icing on the cake. There were terrible calls throughout. Both teams got dinged for amazingly bad pass interference calls, including one on the Seahawks on the Packers' go-ahead score that kept the Packers' drive alive.

The Packers got hit on a questionable roughing the passer call on an interception deep in Seattle territory that would've given them a chance to salt the game away. And more.

And this is just one game. It happened all over the NFL this weekend. If you can't trust the calls, you can't trust the game and it's not worth watching.

 

The Packers-Seahawks fiasco was just the icing on the cake. The refs have proven to be incompetent and unable to control the game. I wonder if the NFL is concerned about the possibity of a crooked ref like in the NBA. You've already seen a Saints fanboy, a ref kicked out of the lingerie football league and some Terribe calls including a 20 yard penalty, giving a coach a rest challenge he should
Not have bad and finally a bad call that cost a team a game in prime Time.

The coue of bucks the NFL is trying to save here isn't worth the damage to its reputation.

 

I think the only people happier than Seattle fans by last night's outcome was the regular refs. Now there's going to be a lot more pressure on Goodell to cut a deal after so many places (even media outlets) were going out of their way to say what a good job the replacement refs were doing.

 

It's not about how many days or hours they work; the scarcity of their skill (which requires talent plus years of training and development) is what establishes the market for NFL-level referees. This is blowing up in the NFL's face at this point in terms of PR, and there's no more PR-conscious organization in sports. The real refs' value to the NFL is becoming more and more obvious with each scab-reffed game. The refs have gained some leverage, at least for now.

 

Lost in this whole argument is the plight of the lowly replacement refs. Scabs, they call us. The lowest of the low. Yeah, because we order hits and get off like Ray Lewis. Or have our girlfriends killed just because they are carrying our child, like Rae Carruth. Or torture dogs like Michael Vick. But we're worse than them because we don't adhere to a labor dispute. Yeah, us poor NAIA officials stuck in bumfuck calling games nobody cares about between MidAmerica Nazarene and Georgetown. It's not even the right Georgetown, it's in freaking Kentucky.

You know who really has it bad is the two NAIA fans. They have to watch games with replacement replacement refs. God it must suck to be them.

Meanwhile, we get poked and prodded by coaches. We have to wipe the Jim Harbaugh spiddle from our faces, god does that guy have bad breath. We have to listen to Jim Schwartz whine like a little bitch. It's worse than a cross-country road trip with my sister's kids. If only I could buy his ass a happy meal to shut him up for a little while.

We get no respect from players. Imagine the hell that would break lose if we tossed one of these freakin' cry babies out of a game. "You just got tossed by a replacement ref!" We wouldn't be able to face the other folks in our fantasy league if we cost them a game by tossing out a player. A bad call, you can blame that on not having a good angle. Tossing a guy, there's no talking your way out of that one.

All we're trying to do is make a few extra bucks and maybe get some tail, just like the next guy. You know how much tail we get in Seattle now? Damn those rainforest chicks are hot. The ones that shave their legs and pits, anyway.

We weren't ever going to make it to the NFL without this opportunity. We had nothing to lose and everything to gain. You want my opinion on Roger Gooddell, the man's a saint. I hope the lockout lasts all season. I got a Dolphins game to fuck up, I mean call in December. How sweet would that be? Miami tail in warm weather instead of my frozen hell hole in the upper Midwest. Yeah, that's right. You would do the same if you were in my shoes.

As for fixing a game? Hell, if I get a call on my cell phone with a 702 area code, I'm picking that shit up, stat. I got a kid who needs braces and that alimony aint paying itself.

 

Best sock puppet since Abe Vigoda!

 

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What are the chances this is real? I so want to believe. It's like the day a new arrival named Charlie Sheen opened an account here. Would that be so inconceivable?

 

They do a bunch of stuff during the week. I think they have to take a test on the rules each and every week, although I've heard it's an open-book test. They have to go over their games on conference calls, and on the Saturdays, the crews have to meet together to do more rulebook work. Then they work Sunday, which is more than just the 3+ hours of the game. They have to check the field beforehand, meet with the coaches, check the players' equipment, etc.

And during the off-season, they have more meetings where they have to take more rules tests (I'm not sure if they're open or closed book). Get too many questions wrong, and they're fired.

And it takes them many years to get to the NFL. I'm not sure of the exact requirement, but my understanding is that they need many years of major D-I officiating experience to become qualified. And that's if there are any jobs open. There aren't that many from year to yar.

So these guys have earned the positions. And it's not like they just show up and officiate either.

 

Hey, I'm a freelancer. Where's my pension?