Here at the sports mixer, I've wanted to do a week-by-week look at the NFL schedule and do some picks.
Obviously, that hasn't happened as of yet.
There's an explanation for it though, I promise, and it has little to do with being lazy, although I could certainly see where you'd come to that conclusion given that I haven't written a thing overall in 3 weeks.
Okay, so lazy is part of it.
There's another reason though, and last night's Monday Night Football game epitomized that reasoning; the referees can't be trusted.
What does that have to do with picking a football game?
Consider this: if I had picked the game last night, my initial instinct would have been to pick the Green Bay Packers. Good team, albeit a little dysfunctional to start the season, playing an underdog Seattle Seahawks team in a very loud environment. Yet if anyone can overcome crowd noise and a feisty team, it's Aaron Rodgers, right?
Well, after watching the final play of the game, I would have been sabotaged by the replacement refs. Simply put, they blew it. Two different guys made two different calls, and in the end, they both were wrong in agreeing that it was a touchdown. Then they decided they couldn't overturn it on replay and I think it's simply because they would've been mauled by the Seattle crowd that wanted that win.
In the end, anyone who picked Green Bay was done in by the refs, something you couldn't say until last night.
Sure, they've botched several calls, couldn't get the clock timed correctly in some instances, marked off penalties incorrectly, called phantom penalties, and have done everything short of forget that it's a football game. So what that they seem to forget that they're officiating an NFL game, not a lower level game (see CJ Spiller's touchdown against the Cleveland Browns last Sunday when an offensive lineman was illegally downfield).
It's made the decision to start doing that sort of a column much more difficult. Granted, there have been plenty of people reminding us that the regular refs missed calls, pointed the wrong way on turnovers and penalties, and so on, but we've never seen anything like what we've been seeing since the preseason started.
Who's to blame? Who cares? Just get it done already. I'm sure the NFL can find a little bit of money in it's pool to give out to the refs and no longer lock them out. Do it before someone gets seriously hurt since players and coaches clearly do not have any respect for the replacement refs. Just watch the activities going on after the whistle blows. Players shoving each other around, coaches running on to the field, and both players and coaches lobbying for calls. It's out of control and Roger Goodell knows it.
He has to. Does he not watch the replays of the games?
I understand that these refs are in over their heads. I don't blame them. One week, you're preparing for a D-III matchup with two schools no one outside of the students has ever heard of, next you know, you're trying to figure out if that was roughing the passer or a clean hit involving Tom Brady. It's not fair to them, it's not right, and unfortunately, they're receiving the brunt of the criticism.
Except for that ref that was a blatant New Orleans Saints fan. He deserved what happened to him. Remember kids, if you're going to officiate a game involving your all-time favorite sports team ever, hide the pictures of you tailgating in the parking lot decked from head to toe in its apparell, and for God's sake, don't go posting on Facebook that you get to officiate that game.
This isn't to take blame away from the refs though. A lot of things they've messed up, they should know from the game they're used to officiating. While it's true that the NFL game has several different rules from college and high school, enough of them are the same that they shouldn't be botching those, but they have. For instance, allowing the clock to run after a player ran out of bounds with the ball.
In the end, the regular refs have to be laughing at all of this. They have to be loving that fans, players, and coaches are hoping and praying for them to return soon. They have to think they're going to get a standing ovation in every stadium when they do come back. When they mark off a penalty correctly, you know they'll love the fact that players from both sides will be applauding them.
Until they screw up a pass interference call, thus giving Kevin Kolb and the Arizona Cardinals a win they didn't deserve. Then it's back to them being crappy refs again.
But all will be right in the NFL world again.
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