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A good point regarding the replacement officials Cannoli Send a noteboard - 24/09/2012 02:55:12 PM
An excerpt from DJ Gallo's weekly column last week, framed as a letter from an imaginary spokesman for the replacement referees (noting that unlike the union referees, they have no one making a case for them).

Dear NFL Players, Coaches and Fans,

Shut up.

Stop your whining, you sad losers. We are replacement refs, but you are full-time pathetic.

Many of us work during the week as schoolteachers in classrooms full of teenagers. Yet after two weekends with you people, we see the weekdays as our opportunity to spend time with mature and rational people.

So we have gotten some calls wrong? Embarrassed ourselves here and there? Oh, wow! What a travesty! This has never happened before in an NFL game (http://www.pickinsplinters.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/referee-gaffe.jpg) with the fancy regular officials, right?

Show us the one game -- and there are 31 to choose from so far -- where we affected the outcome. While you rack your brain to come up with nothing, let us point to this game (http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3594778) when Ed Hochuli single-handedly won a game for Jay Cutler and the Broncos against the Chargers. Yes, your beloved and muscled patron saint of referees enabled Jay Cutler to win a big game. That’s almost impossible, but he did it.

Yet we have guys like Joe Flacco saying this garbage after games (saying it because they lost and they’re sad): “The [Eagles] were all over our guys and not in a very legal way sometimes." And that we are “affecting the integrity of the game.” Flacco also laughed at how one of us made a call: "He didn't even throw a flag. He threw a blue beanie and then put his hands in the air -- like offensive pass interference -- I mean, come on."

Ha-ha-ha. It’s funny because Flacco is criticizing how someone else throws. OK, fine. It was a mistake to throw the blue beanie and not the flag that one time. Just like how you made a mistake completely missing your receivers 20 times. 20 > 1. At least the official was intending for his thrown object to land on the ground.

Are we as dumb as Redskins receiver Josh Morgan was taking his team out of field goal range with a stupid personal foul penalty? Not even close.

Did you see Arizona Cardinals running back Ryan Williams fumble the ball late in their game against the Patriots when his only job was to not fumble? And then did you see Stephen Gostkowski blow a game-winning field goal right after that? We haven’t done one thing half as incompetent in two weeks as two players did a few minutes apart in one game.

Jim Harbaugh has made a hobby out of screaming at us, but he didn’t even know what down it was during one series against the Lions. Jim, we’re sure you’re insanely screaming some great points at us, but it’s pointless to debate with someone who doesn’t know basic facts.

Do we sometimes misspeak when making a call or mess up with the public address system? Yep. But this is our second week on the job. Andy Reid has been coaching for 14 years and still doesn’t understand how timeouts or challenges work. Advantage: replacement refs.

We usually are officiating games played by middle school and high school kids. Here’s a news flash for you: The transition from them to you hasn’t been that great. You’re bigger and stronger and faster, sure. But we’re managing. Again: We haven’t affected the outcome of a single game. That’s pretty good for a weekend job we got just to make some money to put in an above-ground pool in the backyard. And we’re on TV now, which has made us pretty much the most famous people in our towns.

So shut up. Worry about what you’re doing and let us keep doing our part-time temporary job. You guys are full-time professionals and you screw up way more than we do. If you have lost a game, it’s on you. Not us.

Think about it: If you guys are so perfect and infallible, why do officials even exist?

See you again next week. We can’t wait to see how you all mess up this time.

Sincerely,

The Replacements

Gallo makes a good point. From the casual notice I have taken of the contentions of the officiating union, nearly $200,000 a year is not enough for them and they are sticking on the issue of accountability for their errors. Yes, they have made mistakes, but their regular rivals have done so as well, notoriously. Last year, in their playoff game, both of Green Bay's touchdowns were scored on drives that were preserved by egregious errors on the officials' part. Under much protest, the current replay system was instituted several years ago after a number of infamous game-changing mistakes, including things like botching the call on an OT coin flip in a game that would have playoff implications.

The new officials are still learning, and even while doing so, they have not been performing in a notably inferior manner. The complaints such as Flacco's that Gallo cites are more one of style and idiosyncracy. If lineman are holding more, if coverage personnel are getting away with more interference, these are across the board, and not even changing the style of play all that much - the offense and defense seem to benefit equally, and if it is difficult for players to adjust to what they can and can't get away with, well, no one seemed to think that was a problem when the league became safety conscious a year or two ago, and some players had to learn whole new ways of tackling and hitting.

Officiating mistakes are part of the game, and that's never going to change, short of extensive reforms in the whole officiating process. Pressuring the the league into knuckling under to the officials' demands will not greatly improve the quality of the game, possibly not even in the short-term (as the replacements get better, and the unionists' skills deteriorate with unuse), and it will be another cost to be passed onto the fans. And the officials' union will gain clout, prestige, moral authority, whatever you want to call it, and officiating reforms will be even harder to put through, as the union resists anything that might embarass or replace its constituency.
Cannoli
“Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.” GK Chesteron
Inde muagdhe Aes Sedai misain ye!
Deus Vult!
*MySmiley*
Original article.
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A good point regarding the replacement officials - 24/09/2012 02:55:12 PM 869 Views
You must not be watching the games - 24/09/2012 05:09:20 PM 428 Views
And there you have it. (Monday Night Football update.) - 25/09/2012 05:18:37 AM 416 Views
That was the right call. "Union" has nothing to do with it. - 25/09/2012 11:37:39 AM 531 Views
No, it was not. And yes, it does. - 25/09/2012 05:11:52 PM 359 Views
^This +1,000,000 *NM* - 25/09/2012 05:20:51 PM 203 Views
The replay officals are not replacements. Maybe Rodgers just isn't a clutch QB *NM* - 25/09/2012 11:44:29 AM 187 Views
Hmm? - 25/09/2012 05:01:26 PM 391 Views
Like DK I was being a smart ass - 25/09/2012 06:17:12 PM 396 Views
I agree with Cannoli, sadly. These officials are not much worse if at all. - 26/09/2012 01:51:30 AM 570 Views
I love the replacement refs - 26/09/2012 04:25:42 PM 372 Views

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