Seahawks Blogger for Tacoma newspaper calls out Casale and Patriots.com

[pats1]

They've just been talking about this on PFW in Progress:

http://blogs.thenewstribune.com/seahawks/?p=1484&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1#more1484

06/27/06

The NFL and communist Russia

Posted by Mike Sando @ 05:47:05 pm

This is a fascinating time for media watchers. Our own coverage has changed quite a bit over the last couple of years, notably with this blog. In the broader view, it's interesting to watch how various corporate entities are covering themselves. The NFL is doing this aggressively with its cable network and Web site. Individual team sites are joining the table independently. Content varies widely. I was stunned to read the following passage on the Patriots' official site today, provided by Patriots Football Weekly's Tom Casale during a mailbag column:

Q: What has come of all the talk of tweaking the NFL officiating after the Atrocious showing by the Zebras this past post-season? Wasn't this past year the first year that they used so called "All-Star" officiating crews? Clearly that didn't work out so well!! Does the NFL just think its fans are so stupid we will all just forget about the pathetic job the Ref's did? -- Craig Clark

A: The short answer to your question is, yes, the NFL thinks the fans are stupid when it comes to officiating and there’s nothing we can do about it. The league treats the officials like communist Russia. No one can talk to them, they don’t have to explain any decisions they make and 99 percent of the time, the NFL sides with their call no matter how ridiculous it may be. If the Colts had beaten the Steelers in the playoffs, do you think the league would have come out and said the officials made a mistake? Of course not. They only did that because the Steelers won and the ref’s awful call didn’t cost them the game. The league is so crazy about their officials, I’ll probably get fined for this post but to answer your question, the NFL regularly insults the intelligence of the fans by claiming calls the rest of the world knows are wrong, were made correctly. -Tom Casale, writing for the Patriots' official Web site

We generally keep this blog Seahawks-related. This case hints at issues that affect all teams, the reporters who cover those teams and the people interested in how those teams are covered. My first reaction to the above-cited passage went along these lines: Why would the league and/or one of its teams want such content written in its name? Could the league fine the Patriots for making or at least condoning such comments, however indirectly? And, finally, does the league control what teams write on their Web sites?

I raised the final question today with league vice president Greg Aiello. "Each NFL team is responsible for the editorial content of its web site," was his e-mailed response. In the Patriots' case, my understanding is that team owner Robert Kraft employs Casale, but the league does not. Therefore, the league does not control what Casale might write on its Web site. I did notice, however, that the cited passage was subsequently removed from the Patriots' site.

We saved a copy of the original version here (this link is opening in my Internet Explorer browser, but not in Firefox; if you are having problems, try right-clicking on the link, selecting "save link as" and then saving the file to your computer; you should then be able to open it with IE). The edited version was still online here as of this afternoon.

I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts. How should a team's Web site cover the team and the league? Can team Web sites be credible sources of information? Do you find team Web sites valuable? Which ones are the best? The worst? Why? What will team Web sites look like in five years? What questions do you have?

Seahawks Insider

Mike Sando has covered the Seahawks for The News Tribune since May 1998. His award-winning blog dates to April 2005. Mike also contributes to USA Today.com and the affiliated USA Today Sports Weekly, plus KJR-AM 950, Pro Football Weekly, KFFL, Athlon, Lindy's and others. In 2004, Mike co-authored Steve Raible's Tales From the Seahawks' Sideline. He lives in the South Sound with his wife and sons.

BLOG GUIDELINES: Questions welcome. Info encouraged. Humor appreciated. Civility required. No venting, no idle chatter, no tank tops or cutoffs. THE READERS THANK YOU.

 

[BradyManny]

I truly dislike anyone who has a "blog". I hope that doesn't offend anyone on here, but I just wanted to make that clear first and foremost.

Second-of-ly - what does this guy care in the first place? Anyone and everyone knows the NFL officiating was mind bogglingly bad in the playoffs, Kraft himself complained about the refs, why the heck would anyone have a problem with a contributor to the Pats website doing the same?

I think Mike Sando needs to take the stick out of his rear as well as get a life.

 

[Pats726]

I agree...I heard it and see your links and his words...really dumb..and I love what Casale said..I didn't realize this guy wrote for many places..would like to read more of his garbage to see where he's coming from..

 

[arrellbee]

Thanks for an interesting link, Pats1.

That's a rather surprising commentary by Tom Casale. Just my personal opinion, of course, but I think he's so far off base I have to wonder if he's not going to get some serious feedback from Patriots admin.

Again, just my personal opinion, but I am impressed with what seems to be an honest and pretty serious effort on the part of the NFL to have good officiating. JMHO but I think they are WAY above MLB and NBA.

(In MLB, it seems that many too many umpires are really poor at calling balls and strikes and some seem to be even perverse and nasty about how they treat some batters and pitchers. How they ever get qualified for the majors is beyond me. And talk about going out of their way to ignore poor umpiring and protect it - they won't allow any reasonable amount of TV framing of the calls at the plate. And NBA refereeing seems to be built around a culture of some referees having vendettas against certain teams and players and a built in wierd bias against rookies and journeymen and tolerance of fouling by superstars and preference. Ugggh.)

On the other hand, I don't quite see how folks can be so critical of what seems to be a definite effort and program by the NFL to critique and improve the refereeing. They actually grade each and every referee each and every game and the referees get specific feedback reports each week on the previous weeks grading and critique on both their individual performance and the referees as a working team. This has been documented on NFL network specials with head referees going over how their weeks are organized and the feedback they get from the league and their expectations that they will take the critiques into account in the future.

The NFL Director of Officiating, Mike Pereira, makes himself available publicly in the media to give the analysis of what he and the Officiating home office folks have observed and how they critiqued and judged calls from the past week. I certainly can't speak for anyone else, but to me these critiques seem really well done and seem really very frank. I am impressed with the detailed comments about what the rules are that apply and how they apply to this particular call and especially what the order of precedence is if several rules apply. There couldn't seem to be any more frankness about what were incorrect calls. There are calls where Pereira says even on review there may be no black and white answers and you are left with the call being made on the field - I don't see on some of those how you could say any differently. On the other hand, it's a little off-putting when he has explanations that calls are clearly correct without doubt and the general fan base wants to put their own slant or critique on it otherwise.

I would really recommend, if there are any calls that you have serious questions about during the season, check out the video clips of Pereira's discussions on NFL.com or catch him on NFL All Access if you get NFL Network. Chances are very good that if it was controversial, that you might find a discussion by him. There are also various other 'ask the referee' sites around that are really quite good also.

 

[Brady-To-Branch]

Again, just my personal opinion, but I am impressed with what seems to be an honest and pretty serious effort on the part of the NFL to have good officiating.

Why so?

Since 2004, the NFL Competition Committee has been in reactionary mode. Three of its members at the time: Rams HC Mike Martz, Colts GM Bill Pollian, and Colts HC Tony Dungy had their high powered passing games stifled by the physical Pats defense. As a result, Illegal Contact calls, some that are bogus, keep critical drives alive. Moreover, there are so many bogus and ticky-tac Pass Interference calls that change the course of a game.

Months ago, the NFLCC replaced one of its members with Bengals coach Marvin Lewis shortly after Carson Palmer was hit low and left the AFC first round playoff game with a knee injury. It was unfortunate, but is was also unintentional. Nevertheless, the NFLCC overreacted (they've been playing pro football since 1920) and decided to make a rule that prevents low hits on the QB. Now, in addition to every deep pass that falls incomplete, I have to hold my breath and wait for the flag every time a QB gets sacked.

The NFLCC also breathes down the officials neck if they become lax in enforcing the new rules. When the officiating is tight, subjectivity increases. Nothing sours a fan more than seeing a game ruined by bogus/ticky-tac officiating, which is what we're seeing in today's NFL.


BTW, Mike Sando is a brown-nosed tool.

 

[BradyManny]

I would really recommend, if there are any calls that you have serious questions about during the season, check out the video clips of Pereira's discussions on NFL.com or catch him on NFL All Access if you get NFL Network.

I've seen the Pereira segment a few times, it is enjoyable and interesting. However, the motivation is ALWAYS defending controversial calls by officials. So in the end its just shameless self promotion/PR. Casale is right on point that they will only apologize for wrong calls if the call did not change the outcome of the game in a way it shouldn't have.

IE, they apologized for the Steelers-Colts ridicolous refereeing b/c the Steelers in the end had won. If the Colts had not choked, we would've seen Pereira on NFL network somehow trying to tell us how that wasn't an interception...

It's also why the NFL won't comment on the Pats-Denver game. Everyone knows there were some brutal calls in that, but the NFL simply avoids it.

So, I see what you are saying about Pereira, the effort on the NFL to get it right in the first place is there more than in any other sport - but they do get it wrong at the same rate, and when they do, they are just more ambitious in trying to trick people into thinking they got it right. IE, remember Vick's BS touchdown in which we Pereira explained the "goal line extends out of bounds" garbage - there isn't another ref that will tell you that. And if that were actually true, then things like the Bailey fumble wouldn't even be in question. So, in that case, Pereira went on air with this "extending goal line" stuff that to be honest, I'm not sure most refs have ever even heard.

So, basically, what I'm saying is, don't believe what the league tells you...and the playoff officiating was so, so, soooo bad it dwarfs anything seen in MLB or NBA in recent history.

 

[holyredeemer]

I must be confused, because I took something completely different in his blog then the above posters got from it. I just got the feeling that he was mostly concerned, not with what Casale necessarily said, but more so with the fact that the Patriots official web site removed his response. Casale gave an honest answer to a serious question, and once his response was noticed by the higher powers that be, someone removed it. I dont know really how I should feel, but in a way, it really bothers me. Anyone, and I mean ANYONE who questions the NFL is either fired, spanked, fined or whatever the NFL seems fit. I am sure alot of the posters in the political forum would love to respond to this. I also, would love to see their response.

 

[I'm Ron Borges?]

I'm sorry but is this guy offended because Casale had a problem with the officiating in the NFL playoffs this past year? If that's the case, he must have a problem with a lot of people because a majority of NFL fans thought the officiating was downright awful in last year's playoffs.

 

[patchick]

I'm sorry but is this guy offended because Casale had a problem with the officiating in the NFL playoffs this past year? If that's the case, he must have a problem with a lot of people because a majority of NFL fans thought the officiating was downright awful in last year's playoffs.

I don't think that was his intent at all. He says nothing critical of Casale -- the article isn't actually about officiating, but about "dissent" in team-sponsored media, and whether it's tolerated by the league. A very pertinent topic in a time when the NFL is trying to take control of its own media coverage.

 

[5 Rings for Brady!!]

There are a lot of things that went wrong in the playoffs last year that no amount of damage control, or 'grading' after the fact, can change.

We seriously could be talking about the 4 time superbowl champion Pats, the first team to EVER win three straight. We could have beaten the Steelers at home, and the Seahawks had a terrible superbowl. But instead we do some harmless whining after the fact, because its all that we can do. Bob Kraft complained as much as he could about the officiating, without going completely overboard. Nobody was happy about it.

Maybe Tom Casale went a little too far, but he was talking fan to fan. He wasn't trying to communicate with some guy from the Seahawks, who also had some interesting officiating in their loss. Nothing like the Denver game, however.

Whatever the NFL is doing is not nearly enough, in my opinion.

 

[5 Rings for Brady!!]

Patchick makes an excellent point which should take this thread to another level, i.e. how much control should the NFL have over the media. I mean, it is starting to be like Big Brother. No sideline reporting by any local media, total control over all NFL images, censoring people at websites, when possible. And major damage control when it comes to shoddy officiating. I've never been remotely impressed with Mike Periera's dog and pony show on the NFL Network. The whole credibility of that network has to be in question, at this point.

I've never liked the patronizing way that the NFL tries to portray its players as your 'Local Community Leader right down the street'. It's just not true. They are milllionaires who hit each other. The Charity stuff is mostly just another big dog and pony show. Especially the image part, about what wonderful members of the community these guys are. Some are and some aren't. It's just a publicity stunt. Nothing wrong with actual charity fund raising, just the false 'Leave it to Beaver' NFL image.

Maybe I am old fashioned, but I would rather that they just play the game and don't obsess about their image all the time. Clearly, they are doing it to make money and increase the exposure of the sport, but I don't personally care for it. I also think Nascar is ridiculous, with all their drivers advertising laundry detergent and such. I like sports just to be about sports.

 

[arrellbee]

Why so?

Since 2004, the NFL Competition Committee has been in reactionary mode. Three of its members at the time: Rams HC Mike Martz, Colts GM Bill Pollian, and Colts HC Tony Dungy had their high powered passing games stifled by the physical Pats defense. As a result, Illegal Contact calls, some that are bogus, keep critical drives alive. Moreover, there are so many bogus and ticky-tac Pass Interference calls that change the course of a game.

Months ago, the NFLCC replaced one of its members with Bengals coach Marvin Lewis shortly after Carson Palmer was hit low and left the AFC first round playoff game with a knee injury. It was unfortunate, but is was also unintentional. Nevertheless, the NFLCC overreacted (they've been playing pro football since 1920) and decided to make a rule that prevents low hits on the QB. Now, in addition to every deep pass that falls incomplete, I have to hold my breath and wait for the flag every time a QB gets sacked.

The NFLCC also breathes down the officials neck if they become lax in enforcing the new rules. When the officiating is tight, subjectivity increases. Nothing sours a fan more than seeing a game ruined by bogus/ticky-tac officiating, which is what we're seeing in today's NFL.

BTW, Mike Sando is a brown-nosed tool.

Apples and Oranges ?? ?? ?? The competition committee sets the rules and sometimes 'emphasis'. They don't manage the referees or whatever programs are in place to try to make the officiating better.

The NFLCC is charged with and supposed to be concerned with making the game a better product (so owners and players can get rich) and protecting the players who make the product and who would like to play a career without getting knocked out with injury.

Whether they are doing a 'good' job of that or not is, I guess, strictly a matter of personal opinion. I get the impression from your comments, that you seem to prefer a macho style of football with gladiators being carried off the field or reception situations being more of a man-on-man physical confrontation - apologies in advance if I got the wrong impression (and that's a sincere apology). Each to his own.

 

[arrellbee]

I've seen the Pereira segment a few times, it is enjoyable and interesting. However, the motivation is ALWAYS defending controversial calls by officials. So in the end its just shameless self promotion/PR. Casale is right on point that they will only apologize for wrong calls if the call did not change the outcome of the game in a way it shouldn't have.

IE, they apologized for the Steelers-Colts ridicolous refereeing b/c the Steelers in the end had won. If the Colts had not choked, we would've seen Pereira on NFL network somehow trying to tell us how that wasn't an interception...

It's also why the NFL won't comment on the Pats-Denver game. Everyone knows there were some brutal calls in that, but the NFL simply avoids it.

So, I see what you are saying about Pereira, the effort on the NFL to get it right in the first place is there more than in any other sport - but they do get it wrong at the same rate, and when they do, they are just more ambitious in trying to trick people into thinking they got it right. IE, remember Vick's BS touchdown in which we Pereira explained the "goal line extends out of bounds" garbage - there isn't another ref that will tell you that. And if that were actually true, then things like the Bailey fumble wouldn't even be in question. So, in that case, Pereira went on air with this "extending goal line" stuff that to be honest, I'm not sure most refs have ever even heard.

So, basically, what I'm saying is, don't believe what the league tells you...and the playoff officiating was so, so, soooo bad it dwarfs anything seen in MLB or NBA in recent history.

Well, certainly each to his own opinion. I happen to disagree strongly with everything you have said and each and every detailed point. So there is no point in typing comments - my opinion is just the reverse of yours in every case. Se la vie.

 

[arrellbee]

I must be confused, because I took something completely different in his blog then the above posters got from it. I just got the feeling that he was mostly concerned, not with what Casale necessarily said, but more so with the fact that the Patriots official web site removed his response. Casale gave an honest answer to a serious question, and once his response was noticed by the higher powers that be, someone removed it. I dont know really how I should feel, but in a way, it really bothers me. Anyone, and I mean ANYONE who questions the NFL is either fired, spanked, fined or whatever the NFL seems fit. I am sure alot of the posters in the political forum would love to respond to this. I also, would love to see their response.

I don't think that was his intent at all. He says nothing critical of Casale -- the article isn't actually about officiating, but about "dissent" in team-sponsored media, and whether it's tolerated by the league. A very pertinent topic in a time when the NFL is trying to take control of its own media coverage.

Good calls. I think you folks have clearly identified the theme of the blog.

 

[patriotsrule]

I don't know for sure but this guy may have an axe to grind with the Patriots. My brother lives in Seattle and is a big-time Seahawks fan. A couple of years ago when they played here and it was close in the 4th quarter, there was a somewhat questionable pass interference call late in the game that the Seahawks didn't get. Well, my brother and I argued about the call and Monday he sent me a story written by this guy who obviously sided with him. It was about how it's hard for teams to win in Foxborough today much like it used to be for teams to win in RFK with the Redsins because the Pats are the NFL's darlings at the moment and they want to see their poster boy (Tom Brady) on top. This may be his way of using the Patriots to make his point about team web sites. If it is, I say it's probably backfiring because if PFW doesn't get in any trouble, this is great publicity for them. Anyways, it may be a case of a reporter with an agenda.

 

[mgcolby]

Can we please move on from the Denver game?

Were bad calls made? Yes!

But everyone of them came immediatly after a Patriot Turnover, take away the Patriots mistake and you eliminate the bad call!

The Pats didn't deserve to win that game nor does any team that turns the ball over 5 times in a game but especially in a playoff game!

 

[5 Rings for Brady!!]

I think this thread has moved beyond the Denver game, perhaps you should check out what has been said. The Denver game was mentioned as a recent example of the NFL screwing up officiating, which you confirmed. And then Kraft and Casale both whined about the officiating, which was evident in Casale's post which got all the attention.

Now the question that was being asked was about how the NFL handles the media. My opinion is that they are micro-managing a lot of things, and I feel like some things are like a dog and pony show; and not straight, honest sports these days.

Do you have an opinion?

 

[bresna]

The Pats didn't deserve to win that game nor does any team that turns the ball over 5 times in a game but especially in a playoff game!

Except for the fact that one of those turnovers, the fumbled punt, was the result of a missed fair catch interference penalty.

 

[Brady-To-Branch]

Apples and Oranges ?? ?? ?? The competition committee sets the rules and sometimes 'emphasis'. They don't manage the referees or whatever programs are in place to try to make the officiating better.

The NFLCC is charged with and supposed to be concerned with making the game a better product (so owners and players can get rich) and protecting the players who make the product and who would like to play a career without getting knocked out with injury.

Whether they are doing a 'good' job of that or not is, I guess, strictly a matter of personal opinion. I get the impression from your comments, that you seem to prefer a macho style of football with gladiators being carried off the field or reception situations being more of a man-on-man physical confrontation - apologies in advance if I got the wrong impression (and that's a sincere apology). Each to his own.

You're wrong. The officials are accountable to the NFLCC directly or indirectly. Despite the flurry of emotions, Palmer's injury was unintentional. The NFL has been in existence for nine decades without this new rule. So why do we need it?

I'm sorry that you can't tell the difference between a game that isn't overofficiated (which is what I'm advocating) from a game that's no different from Aussie Rules Football (of which you've mischaracterized my point of view in hyperbolic fashion). Football is a physical game and injuries will happen. That's the reality of the sport and no form of reactionary rule can change that.

BTW, I've never seen any player being carried off the field from Illegal Contact or a bogus Pass Interference penalty.

 

[nescott]

Seattle and the Hawks are frauds who cares they have never won a Title till they do SEE YA!!