Another Reason The NFL is Messed Up

The league simply INVITES problems to pop up.

Where is the common sense?

Ben Volin ✔ @BenVolin
The 7 Super Bowl officials come from 6 different regular season crews, none of whom worked with Referee Bill Vinovich


Look, right at the start of the playoff game between Dallas and Detroit, I was struck by the comments on air for the Fox Sports broadcast. While the kickoff team was preparing, Buck and Aikman were giving their opinions on the key people to watch in the upcoming contest. They then quickly turned to former head of NFL Officials Mike Perreira off screen to ask his thoughts and he said he was very concerned about how, as opposed to the regualr season where an official's team always works together each week, the NFL cobbles together "All Star" squads of referees for the playoffs who have never worked together as a team - - it is a nice bonus for the individual officials, but he was very concerned that the teamwork necessary would be off.

For Perreira, that must have been like watching a car crash in slow motion.

Well, we know what occurred in THAT Dallas-Detroit game down the stretch and several others.

Where is the common sense?

Similarly, where is the common sense regarding the footballs used? The league could avoid the whole "deflate-Gate" mess by simply doing what every other major league American sport does - - NBA, MLB, MLS, and NHL......all balls used in the game are the domain of the officials and there is no "bringing my favorite ball" to the game.

These idiotic lapses in common sense simply invite the crap that has occurred.

Seahawks are crazy if they don't hold Gronk every play. Or for that matter, the entire team. Hell throw all 45 players out there on the field.

There will be no calls pro Patriot. This game will be the exact duplicate of the Ray Lewis Retirement Bowl travesty. Goodell has his excuse to hide behind now.

Joker said:

There will be no calls pro Patriot. This game will be the exact duplicate of the Ray Lewis Retirement Bowl travesty. Goodell has his excuse to hide behind now.

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C'mon, Joe. The crappy calls will probably go both ways.

shmessy said:

C'mon, Joe. The crappy calls will probably go both ways.

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They haven't recently. The no PI on the Vereen catch was a ****ing joke. Lucky he caught that. We can't beat the hawks if the officiating continues like it has. I try not to be a super homer but we've been ****ed for real. Sooo much holding on our guys and no flags fly.

If the Ray Rice episode revealed one thing above all, it is the utter incompetence of the entire NFL "front office" gang. They fell into a situation that, due to absolutely nothing they have or are capable of accomplishing themselves, is virtually impossible to screw up, but they are doing their best to try. The only question is how long they will take to do irreparable harm to what Rozelle and his organization, and the owners of the 1960s - 1980s built. One can only hope that the next generation of owners wakes up beforehand.

shmessy said:

Similarly, where is the common sense regarding the footballs used? The league could avoid the whole "deflate-Gate" mess by simply doing what every other major league American sport does - - NBA, MLB, MLS, and NHL......all balls used in the game are the domain of the officials and there is no "bringing my favorite ball" to the game.

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It used to be this way, and they had so many complaints from QB's that they changed the rules. I get that it's imperfect, but honestly, I think going the other way is easier:

regulate it less: who CARES what PSI the ball is set at? Who cares if the offense wants to use a slightly over or under inflated ball? As long as everyone is using their own ball, then who could complain?

Darrone said:

It used to be this way, and they had so many complaints from QB's that they changed the rules. I get that it's imperfect, but honestly, I think going the other way is easier:

regulate it less: who CARES what PSI the ball is set at? Who cares if the offense wants to use a slightly over or under inflated ball? As long as everyone is using their own ball, then who could complain?

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They can't have a team bring nerf balls in.

Every other sport does fine with league officials responsible the balls/pucks, etc.

Why make it any more difficult than it needs to be?

Froob said:

They haven't recently. The no PI on the Vereen catch was a ****ing joke. Lucky he caught that. We can't beat the hawks if the officiating continues like it has. I try not to be a super homer but we've been ****ed for real. Sooo much holding on our guys and no flags fly.

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Eh, and we were the great beneficiaries on several push runs/sneaks last game when the refs didn't blow the whistle when they really should have.

It goes both ways. There is no referee conspiracy to sink the pats.

Darrone said:

regulate it less: who CARES what PSI the ball is set at? Who cares if the offense wants to use a slightly over or under inflated ball? As long as everyone is using their own ball, then who could complain?

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Spoken like a true free-market economist. Darrone gets 10 "Winners"

Joker said:

There will be no calls pro Patriot. This game will be the exact duplicate of the Ray Lewis Retirement Bowl travesty. Goodell has his excuse to hide behind now.

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The Patriots can prevent this by pounding the other team into submission, like they did to the Colts.

Darrone said:

It used to be this way, and they had so many complaints from QB's that they changed the rules. I get that it's imperfect, but honestly, I think going the other way is easier:

regulate it less: who CARES what PSI the ball is set at? Who cares if the offense wants to use a slightly over or under inflated ball? As long as everyone is using their own ball, then who could complain?

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The losing team will complain. Especially against the Pats.

shmessy said:

They can't have a team bring nerf balls in.

Every other sport does fine with league officials responsible the balls/pucks, etc.

Why make it any more difficult than it needs to be?

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Wow, you really took down that strawman. no one is arguing they can show up with whatever they want, they all come from the same manufacturers spec.

Why wouldn't the Colts just complain the refs didn't properly check the balls they brought? If they're too incompetent to check balls handed to them by teams, they're too incompetent to check balls handed to them by UPS.

Besides, you're assuming that the controversy stems from the balls, when it's far more likely the balls are merely the first straw grasped by sore losers.

Had ************ himself brought the balls to be inspected by Ghandi and rechecked by MLK it would not have stopped the controversy.... It would Have just been the cleats, or the formations, or the sun was in their eyes... Or whatever else sore losers say.

Bobsyouruncle said:

Why wouldn't the Colts just complain the refs didn't properly check the balls they brought? If they're too incompetent to check balls handed to them by teams, they're too incompetent to check balls handed to them by UPS.

Besides, you're assuming that the controversy stems from the balls, when it's far more likely the balls are merely the first straw grasped by sore losers.

Had ************ himself brought the balls to be inspected by Ghandi and rechecked by MLK it would not have stopped the controversy.... It would Have just been the cleats, or the formations, or the sun was in their eyes... Or whatever else sore losers say.

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Couldn't agree more. There is a narrative out there that this started in Indianapolis. In that narrative the Colts supposedly noticed the deflation issue after an interception. That part of the narrative is BS, in my opinion; they want you to believe that when they handled a Pats ball once they could tell it was not legit but the refs, who handled both teams' balls all game couldn't tell. Sorry, no sale, but I smell a half-truth.

I think it started in Indy when the overconfident Colts got humiliated by a Patriots team on the national featured game. Especially given that game's featured performer was a "JAG" from up the road in South Bend. This was their moment, don't you know, and usual the Patriots crushed them. Doesn't help that they replaced Manning with Luck, Polian with Grigson, or Dungy with Pagano. The words changed but the song remained the same. "Paranoia runs deep..."

AQPE said:

There is a narrative out there that this started in Indianapolis. In that narrative the Colts supposedly noticed the deflation issue after an interception. That part of the narrative is BS, in my opinion; they want you to believe that when they handled a Pats ball once they could tell it was not legit but the refs, who handled both teams' balls all game couldn't tell. Sorry, no sale, but I smell a half-truth.

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The interceptor has already publicly said that he didn't notice anything about the ball and wasn't aware of any issue.

Actually, I'm not aware of any facts other than Kravitz wrote an article. That's the sole fact I'm sure of.

Darrone said:

It used to be this way, and they had so many complaints from QB's that they changed the rules. I get that it's imperfect, but honestly, I think going the other way is easier:

regulate it less: who CARES what PSI the ball is set at? Who cares if the offense wants to use a slightly over or under inflated ball? As long as everyone is using their own ball, then who could complain?

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I want the Pats to play with an empty flappy piece of leather.

TruthSeeker said:

The interceptor has already publicly said that he didn't notice anything about the ball and wasn't aware of any issue.

Actually, I'm not aware of any facts other than Kravitz wrote an article. That's the sole fact I'm sure of.

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There are conflicting reports. Some say that Jackson thought it suspicious and gave it to the equipment manager. Others claim he said he didn't notice anything strange about the ball.