Yesterday’s Monday Night Football game between the Denver Broncos and Atlanta Falcons made it clear to the national audience that the replacements referees need to go. While most media said the replacement referees were decent in week 1, they weren’t and the players of the NFL knew that and took full advantage of their inexperience in week 2.
What’s worse having bias referees like the New Orleans Saints fan that would was scheduled to referee a game between the Carolina Panthers and New Orleans Saints or the fact he wasn’t removed until Sunday morning? My question to NFL, how did you not know he was a Saints fan when everyone else did, not too extensive background check?
On top of that the replacement referees are becoming a hamper on the progression of the game and even worse is it becoming a player’s safety issue. The Broncos-Falcons game was dragged on for good extra 30-to-40 minutes and hampered the no-huddle offense because they could not keep up.
The replacement referee’s are not used to the speed and skill of professional athletes and as a result they are missing all these plays that normally would have been caught by the professional referees. In multiple games the referees were slow and unable to make some of the most basic calls; it was embarrassing.
We are not evening talking about the best of the best college referees, these guys the NFL have hired as replacement officials were officiating Division II and Division III, or Arena Football, a far cry from NFL standards. While football is football, there are a lot different rules in the NFL than college or Arena Leagues. Last night for example they gave the Broncos an extra 5-6 yards, which could have impacted the scoring drive by Denver.
The Baltimore Ravens and Philadelphia Eagles game Sunday was a perfect example of how bad the replacement referees are. Missed calls left and right, taking forever to get simple penalties and turnovers right. Also the fact that players are starting to fight more and more without the regular referees in the game. Players are blatantly getting away with penalties that should be call and have impacted the results of a number of games.
The replacement referees are going to get players hurt, a prime example is in the Dallas Cowboys/Seattle Seahawks game where Seattle’s Golden Tate speared Dallas’ Sean Lee in the head but wasn’t flagged but Bruce Carter was given a personal foul penalty for barely shoveling Russell Wilson out of bounds. One word to describe it is horrible.
It’s not like the referees are asking for huge money, they want to be recognized as full-time employees and want to get benefits, which they rightfully deserve. Roger Goodell and the owners need to get their act together and bring back the professional referees. Unfortunately I feel it will take more weeks like this past weekend in order for the NFL to do something about the replacement referees. The owners and the Commissioner are only thinking of their interests and not of the players, the replacement referees are a joke and they need to go as soon as possible.
