Replacement Refs - It has to be said.(Merged X7)

[Hazy]

On the possibility of Belichick getting disciplined for touching the ref, I think if he gets fined it’s extremely harsh.

He was chasing after a ref to get an explanation (which he is entitled to) of why there was no review of the FG (especially if the refs are not upto scratch they could have missed a potnetially game changing challenge). The ref ignored him which by any anybody's standards was extremely rude. He did what anybody would do in a situation where you are being ignored by somebody, was touch him to get his attention. Calling it a "grab" seems a bit far fetched as, as soon as he touched him and he relized he was getting no response, he let go.

I didn't see it as anyway violent or aggressive but a normal reaction to being ignored. He looked very confused at what was going on.

Unfortunately he is going to be made an example of, to keep this farce going.

Even harsher was that Harbaugh's constant berating of the refs after the warranted Ngata personal foul on Brady resulted in two ridiculous calls on Gronk and Edelman on the same drive. Belichick seemed quiet reserved in comparison to Harbaugh throughout the game.

 

[Alfred]

Re: Gresh brought up a good point last night about the refs

I actually think the call on Harbaugh (if it was on him) was legit. He walked out on to the field and motioned for the ref saying 'I want to talk to you' and he wouldn't back off until the flag was thrown. THEN he said he was calling timeout.... If you call a timeout, you call it. You make the 'T' with your hands, you yell it, whatever, and you get the TO. Harbaugh is full of it.

Coaches or players do NOT call timeout. They ask for timeout but there is no timeout called until the official signals for it.

 

[Patriot_in_NY]

On the possibility of Belichick getting disciplined for touching the ref, I think if he gets fined it’s extremely harsh.

I would agree for the most part. After the terrible officiating, I'm sure the league will just want this to go away. He'll probably get a fine on the order of a "helmet to helmet" hit, but that's it. Just an on principal thing. I think Harbaugh will get the same thing for his personal foul.

 

[signbabybrady]

I cant say this enought **CK you NFL!!!!**CK YOU!!!

This is the biggest slap in the face ever. I mean what the hell is the NFL even fighting about. IMO the refs are a business expense and in good business you charge enough for your product to cover business expenses and to still have a profit. If the NFL refs win this battle are the owners truly going to eat this cost? Obviously not, they will raise ticket prices or the cost of merchandise as they would be justified in doing so.

Seems to me like the NFL decided that rather than changing the price on their menu they will just give a crappier cut of meat for the same price and then they just expect us to eat up like nothings changed. Really the only difference is there isnt another restaraunt of this quality in the world so I cant chose to eat somewhere else.

Seems to me like the NFL needs to cave to the officials and then just charge the fan more to make up the difference. Sure this will piss off fans but I cant see how it could piss off more people than it is right now and at least the product would be the same as it has always been.

 

[Danger Zone]

Re: Replacement Refs - It has to be said.(Merged X2)

... and that's my point. Win Lose or draw. YOU NEVER want to see a outcome that is influenced by the refs. This one CLEARLY was. Don't get me wrong, if the Ravens had lost, I think that their fan base would have been able to start this VERY SAME thread.

It really was that bad in both directions. In a multi-billion dollar industry, that cannot happen. This game was not won (or lost) by the players. It was "effected" by the refs and that is a travesty.

The Ravens won, and tough guy Ray Lewis still whined about the refereeing.

 

[signbabybrady]

And one last thing. For me this isnt even about wether they have cost us a game or two because lets face the old refs were not perfect either. For me it is about the level of frustration watching these refs bumble through a game.

Yesterday they cost us football. Forget about wins and losses, obviously we all want to always win but that isnt always possible, but what we are here for is to watch football but because the refs have absolutely no control over games I was robbed of the amount of football I could actually watch yesterday.

When 5:00-5:15 rolled around and they were still one o clocks games being aired I was robbed of a quarter of the 4:00 games. That is actual games that my advertisement dollars get spent on. I know you bought 3 tickets on this ride but unfortuanately our ride operators lost control of time and there is only enough time for 2.5 rides but its not our fault you see because our normal ride operators barely ever get it wrong but they wanted an extra nickle so we have these scabs you understand right its not our fault we dont want to charde you an extra nickle so we will hoodwink you out of your money instead.

Then there are the moments like giving a measurement when they clearly shouldn't. I honestly believe this didnt matter as I am certain they would have challenged even not granted the measurement but clearly the measurement should not have been granted and given a different set of circumstances this could have mattered. Basically I am screaming at my TV because they make mistakes to try and cover up for the mistakes they make.

Or like when they tacked on 5 yards to the end of a play when that wasnt an option and then cut to commercial leaving me flipping out over the refs only to find they corrected themselves when they got back. This is the sort of mistake a regular ref could have made and I would have pointed it out but I would not have flipped out the way I did. It added agita that I just dont need. and for what so the Owners can pretend like they won another big negotiation.

I think IMO the biggest mistake lies in the NFL waiting until the week before preseason to decide to lock out the officials this should have been done back in march when the new league year started this way they would have ample to time to train replacement refs.

 

[Haley]

The Steelers' Larry Foote Told The Replacement Refs "You Should Go Kill Yourselves"

Someone is going to get killed out there pretty soon. Only question is:

1. will it be a player beheaded in the game
2. or a replacement ref for allowing a player to possibly get beheaded in a game.

 

[Alfred]

I have looked up the list of ALL of the replacement officials and am shocked at what I found. It is on wikipedia and does not list the experience of all of them, but some of these are shocking.


Referee 73 Craig Ochoa – Has experience in the Lingerie Football League.[9]

Referee128 David White – Mid-South Conference (NAIA) and Tennessee high school football official

Head linesman 10 Wayne Bernier – Officiates six-man high school football in Amarillo, Texas.[13]

Head Linesman 129 Mike Wilmoth - A high school social studies teacher and baseball coach from Wellington, Kan. His bio says he has worked as a high school, college and arena league referee.[11]

Line Judge 27 Shannon Eastin – First female official to work an NFL preseason and regular season game

Side Judge
110 Brian Stropolo - Before the week two game between the New Orleans Saints and Carolina Panthers, Stropolo was removed from his role for the game after it was revealed that he was a Saints fan.[14]

Field Judge 57 Eric Joe - Worked High School football in the Sacramento Area (NCOA) and Junior College in Northern California.

Back Judge 84 Derrick Rhone-Dunn - Has worked Arena Football games. Also has officiated high profile collegiate games, including the 2007 Sugar Bowl[15]

===============================================

All the officials are on the list and about 90% of them have nothing listed nxt to their names regarding experience.....

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/list_of_2012_NFL_replacement_officials

 

[jimache]

... even though the most of the calls were fcxxxx awful, i think changing the "pace" of the game with lengthy/frequent "reviews/calls" hurt the pats the most.
... now i need a drink... :bricks:

 

[MadCardDisease]

We Want Real Refs! Boycott Concessions at all games!

I think it is time for Fans to take a stand and say enough is enough!

The NFL thinks they can do whatever they want and the fans will have no say because the fans will always go to the games no matter what. Well you know what, the NFL is correct in that respect.

However the Fans can hit back in another way. I say we spread the word about boycotting all concessions at all NFL Games until the real refs return. Hit the owners in the pocket book and this replacement ref issue will be solved in days.

We Want Real Refs

 

[Deebs]

Well, this would explain everything:

Replacement Refs Admit True Identity As Improv Comedy Troupe Playing Elaborate Prank On NFL, Fans

 

[PatsFaninAZ]

Not sure that any of this the fault of the refs. I believe they are trying to do their best. I wish they were better, but these are scrap heap refs trying hard. Expecting them to be able to manage games like this, which move extremely fast, are played for very high stakes by very intimidating men, in front of thousands of screaming fans with 80 foot high definition televisions in the stands is just asking to much.

This is clearly the fault of the NFL for putting them out there. They are seriously diminishing the product on the field.

I posted about this in week 1, and was pretty much shouted down. Y'all wanted to make some crappy point about how the regular refs suck too. Not delighted to say it, but I told you so.

The part that is astounding to me is how bad they are at basic rules administration. Yesterday in the Cardinals Eagles game, the refs couldn't even get a very basic post-play (dead ball) personal foul administration right. There are clock errors on virtually every play, and they cannot manage the game. Expecting guys who don't even know basic rules to make NFL speed judgment calls is too much. Enough is enough.

 

[signbabybrady]

Not sure that any of this the fault of the refs. I believe they are trying to do their best. I wish they were better, but these are scrap heap refs trying hard. Expecting them to be able to manage games like this, which move extremely fast, are played for very high stakes by very intimidating men, in front of thousands of screaming fans with 80 foot high definition televisions in the stands is just asking to much.

This is clearly the fault of the NFL for putting them out there. They are seriously diminishing the product on the field.

I posted about this in week 1, and was pretty much shouted down. Y'all wanted to make some crappy point about how the regular refs suck too. Not delighted to say it, but I told you so.

The part that is astounding to me is how bad they are at basic rules administration. Yesterday in the Cardinals Eagles game, the refs couldn't even get a very basic post-play (dead ball) personal foul administration right. There are clock errors on virtually every play, and they cannot manage the game. Expecting guys who don't even know basic rules to make NFL speed judgment calls is too much. Enough is enough.

I think most people have been fairly balanced in saying that its not the Refs fault they are put out in a situation they havent been equipped to handle.

I would take this a step further and say based on the way I have seen most games go I think these guys individually for the most part are probably all qualified or of the type given some D1 experience could be qualified to be pro officials. But they should be brought up one at a time and included on veteran crews so that they have experienced guys to back them up, bail them out, and help maintain order and control. But by throwing them all on the field together they have nobody to lean on to learn how things go. To me its kind of akin to an expansion team but to make it even more accurate it would be an expansion team without an expansion draft.

 

[Brady_to_Moss]

I love these refs!

 

[The Boston Patriot]

I didn't think it possible but the NFL has finally achieved Ben Drieth levels across the board with these refs. What a sorry bunch of ****s. I'm not blaming them for the loss. The game is going to have to be dumbed down a lot to continue on with these guys. They are just not able to process all it takes to work as a ref in the NFL.

 

[Sfpat]

Re: Replacement Refs - It has to be said.(Merged X2)

The Ravens won, and tough guy Ray Lewis still whined about the refereeing.

Especially since the only call he's whining about is the Ed Reed decapulization of Branch. If Lewis thinks that was legal within current NFL rules he clearly hasn't been paying attention.

 

[Sfpat]

Re: Gresh brought up a good point last night about the refs

They had a few. The call on Harbaugh was bad (although word was it was actually on Terrell Suggs for talking crap to the refs).

Again, what were the bad calls against the Ravens?

 

[Avenger]

Re: Gresh brought up a good point last night about the refs

Again, what were the bad calls against the Ravens?

the Illegal contact that should have been pass interference. That was the worst one against them, so yeah, we got screwed they didn't.

 

[MrNathanDrake]

The Ravens had maybe 4 bad calls against them the whole game.

The Patriots had closer to 12 bad calls against them the whole game. And the bad calls were in more crucial moments (3rd down, 4th and 1, etc)


I don't even want to watch the replay and take a closer look at what was going on in the trenches. The game was just a complete mess.


I have watched a lot of baseball, basketball, MMA, and football throughout my life... Last night was by far the worst officiating I have seen in any sport. Ever.

 

[Avenger]

The Ravens had maybe 4 bad calls against them the whole game.

The Patriots had closer to 12 bad calls against them the whole game. And the bad calls were in more crucial moments (3rd down, 4th and 1, etc)

Not to mention the many non-calls that went the Raven's way.