Usually, fall is a season I look forward to. Though it signifies the start of school, it's also the season that marks the beginning of the NFL season.
After waiting the grueling seven months from the end of the Super Bowl to the kickoff of the first regular season game, my fellow NFL fans and I went through “NFL withdrawal.” So naturally, the expectations for the season are very high.
However, I was extremely disappointed with the first three weeks of the NFL season. Some may wonder why I, a diehard football fan, would be disappointed with the sport that I spend most of my free time watching, and the answer to this question is two words: replacement referees.
This year, as opposed to last year, when the players were in a lockout, the NFL referees were in a lockout with the league (before it got resolved). The refs wanted more pay and benefits, but the NFL refused to pay them.
Since the refs would not be available for the beginning of the season due to the lockout, the NFL decided to get replacement referees to do the job until they came to an agreement with the real referees.
At first, I didn’t think that this would be such a big issue, but when I watched some of the pre-season games, I saw that the replacements didn’t know a single thing they were doing.
I hoped that they would at least get their act together before the first week, and fortunately, after the first real week, there didn’t seem to be drastic problems with the replacement referees. However, the real mayhem started in week two (week of Sept. 9).
The replacement referees began to show their true colors when they missed various calls, and in some cases, called penalties that were not penalties at all.
One of the big issues with the replacement refs was their interpretation of the “pass interference” penalty. In many cases, while the defensive player may have made some contact with the opposing wide receiver, the contact was not nearly bad enough for a penalty to be called. The refs were practically giving teams free yards, which eventually led to easy wins.
However, the worst action of the replacement refs happened during Monday Night Football on Sept. 24. The Green Bay Packers were playing the Seattle Seahawks, and at the very end of the game, the Packers were winning 12-6.
With about six seconds left in the game, the Seahawks tried a Hail Mary (a last-ditch effort to win the game by the team with the ball). As the ball came down, it looked like a clear Packers’ interception, but as the refs ran to the end zone (where the play happened), one referee signaled touchdown while the other signaled an interception.
They ended up calling this play a touchdown based on the rule that a simultaneous possession goes to the offensive player. This call may have been horrible, but the referees did have a chance to go under the hood and take another look at the play to deem whether this was a touchdown or not.
After several angles, and several different looks, it was completely clear that the Packers’ M.D Jennigs came down with sole possession of the football, which would be an interception, but the replacement referees called it a touchdown, leading to a loss for the Packers.
This was the last straw. The replacement referees had single handedly caused the Packers to lose, which can impact the team greatly later on in the season. People were furious, and finally because of this event, the penurious NFL commissioner Roger Goodell finally reached a deal with the real referees, bringing sanity back to the NFL.
Over rest of the season without the replacement refs, things have run a lot more smooth in the NFL. The improvement in the calls being made on the field, as well as the number of penalties in each game really shows the value of the regular refs, and how one should never take that luxury for granted.
In the end, while the insanity may be over, and the real referees may be back, the replacement refs have impacted the season greatly. I may not even be a Packers fan, but if the Packers do not make the playoffs because of one loss, I, as well as many other NFL fans, will never forgive the ignorant NFL owners who did not just pay the real referees.