Tuesday, September 25, 2012

The stricken NFL: Playing out of bounds

 After seeing the melee in the end zone that awarded a victory to the Seattle Seahawks  over  the Green Bay Packers , it's fair to wonder whether the NFL should now be demoted to the  category of trash sports.  To add to the confusion, both teams were forced to return to the field for a meaningless extra point after the clock expired. If you're still unconvinced, the decisive play  is now being described as the worst officials' decision in NFL history.

Is there anyone - player, coach, fan - who hasn't complained about the dismal performance of the scabs who have replaced the striking officiating crews?  Some, as on Monday night, actually changed the outcome of games with questionable penalties, increasing reviews of on-field decisions. The contests have been tediously drawn out with conferences to discuss penalties, all adding to the endless commercial breaks that have extended 60 minutes of actual playing time to a three-hand-a-half hour slog.  Fans are  spending more time watching the officials' huddles than those of the players.

It turns out that some of the officials are rejects from the Lingerie Football League;  ya know, the one  that features female athletes  suited up like Xena the Warrior Princess on an alleged shrunken football field.  And the NFL season is still young.




3 comments:

JLM said...

The sweet irony is Governor Scott Walker is calling to bring back the union referees.

The little bastard.

David Hess said...

Professional football is a meritocratic sport that is essentially ruled by a code of fairness that embodies the democratic principles of equity and non-bias. The befuddled striped arbiters have neglected not only to school themselves in the game's code of regulations, they have failed the rule of law that governs play on the field. In addition to negligently missing real infractions during play, they can't seem to figure out how to exact penalties when they do catch a culprit breaking a rule. In the most recent Redskin game, they not only failed to maintain the right time left to play but walked-off a penalty by an additional 10 yards. It's way past time for the NFL's high command to get off its high (union-busting) horse and settle with the folks who know how to referee a game.

Grumpy Abe said...

One referee pointed in the wrong direction to call a penalty and was corrected by a player pointing in another direction. In another game, a defensive back was called for interference when he din't touch the opponent. More than one player has said that these guys don't know what pass interference looks like. The complaints, by the way, are nonpartisan.