After further review: Packers intercept pass, lose game
I'm guessing you've seen this image already. (AP photo/seattlepi.com by Joshua Trujillo)
Gee, I don’t know. Looked like an OK call to me.
(Kidding! I’m a kidder!)
In all seriousness: Yes, the NFL looks awful, and yes, the NFL has it coming for putting its precious product — meaning, professional football — in a position to be compromised by a bunch of officials whose training in no way prepared them for this task. And yes, the NFL needs to end the lockout posthaste for the greater good of the NFL. But you knew that already.
What’s of greater interest (at least to me) is that the NFL’s famous “after-further-review” system, which was radical in its conception and implementation, failed at the moment it was needed most. Anyone who watched the Falcons-Broncos game of the previous Monday night grasped that the on-field officials were so cowed by the setting that they were scared to call anything, but replay — and there were a slew of replays that night — was there to set the record straight.
One Monday later, replay couldn’t distinguish a Green Bay interception from a Seattle reception, and somehow the touchdown stood. The NFL’s excuse: Because simultaneous possession was ruled on the field, only indisputable video evidence could overturn the call. And apparently these pictures were, ahem, open to dispute.
So the call on the field — er, one of the calls on the field — was allowed to stand, and now everybody is in a-dither because the Great American Game has been besmirched, but really: Who couldn’t see this coming? In Week 1 the replacements refs gave the Seahawks (yep, them again) a timeout they didn’t have as they were scrambling to score the winning touchdown. That time they failed. Week 2 was way worse. Week 3 was so bad — the Ravens’ hairbreadth winning field goal wasn’t reviewed because field goals are, for reasons unclear, not reviewable– as to make you laugh out loud.
Surely Roger Goodell will climb down from his bullying pulpit and admit what everybody else sees: That the real refs are needed, that to continue with these out-of-their-depth replacements is to risk invalidating the regular season. But the real mystery is why Goodell, who claims his life’s mission is to “protect the [NFL-logo] shield” could have let things deteriorate to this ridiculous extreme.
Ah, well. Maybe we can use replay to review the commissioner’s thought process. That’s assuming he had one. That’s also assuming replay can be invoked in cases of rampant stupidity, which I seriously doubt.
By Mark Bradley
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223 comments Add your comment
Hillbilly D
September 25th, 2012
7:26 pm
What the world needs is more conspiracy theories.
JSS
September 25th, 2012
8:44 pm
http://blogs.indystar.com/varvelblog/files/2012/09/092612.jpg
Even more true…
JSS
September 25th, 2012
9:18 pm
This makes sense…
http://static.happyplace.com/assets/images/2012/09/5061d2a5e1cc9.jpeg
Paul in NH
September 25th, 2012
9:21 pm
@JSS
I know they won’t. When facts bump up against prejudices, prejudices win every time.
James doesn’t seem to understand why a high percentage of people in the south don’t pay federal income tax – it’s a function of actual income.
Only one winless team left in NFC
September 25th, 2012
10:55 pm
The replacement refs will get it together with a little more experience. The old refs made mistakes too! I hate to see a team lose on a bad call, but since it did happen, can’t say I’m sorry it was the Packers.
JSS
September 25th, 2012
11:06 pm
@ Paul in NH…
Absolutely…
Teri H
September 26th, 2012
4:01 am
Really, comparing a Ref to a Doctor. I don’t think a persons life compares to a football game. After all it is only a game and I am sure we can all say there have been bad calls that have cost a game for some team or another.
XUSIE 24 hours worldwide news » After further review: Packers intercept pass, lose game – Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog)
September 26th, 2012
4:49 am
[...] Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog) [...]
jimmyB
September 26th, 2012
8:23 am
Hillbilly D – Thanks for making me laugh. It’s probably not the case, but when you have 17 crews x 10 refs per crew x $150,000 per year, you’re talking $25 million on the table plus a lot of ancillary interests, unions, free markets guys, etc. To not consider the possible money trail implications is naive at best, and to not ask the question, not just in this situation, but anywhere there is a lot of money for the taking, shows the ignorance or incompetence of our media friends once again.
eric
September 26th, 2012
8:48 am
Yes, let’s all pile on the replacements because the great, amazing, super regular refs never made any dubious, game-changing calls before (cough, tuck rule, cough). Just forget about the refs and watch the games. They mostly get things right and the players should have always known that you do what you can on the field and try to win in spite of the refs. That’s true this year just as it was last…
SalleyButcher
September 26th, 2012
11:37 am
Now that President Obama has chimed in on the ridiculous, ignominious Packers loss and stolen Seattle win the other night, maybe the President can use his veto rights and OVERTURN the game and have the correct team credited with the win (of course the Packers). It makes no sense for the Packers to be credited with a loss when its obvious that they won the ballgame. When Seattle coach Pete Carroll walked off the field raising his hand in the touchdown motion (KNOWING FULL WELL THAT THE PACKERS WERE ROBBED OF A VICTORY) and the Seahawks were perpetuating a fraud, it just shows how much integrity there is left in the league. Pete Carroll should be fined $50 million dollars for accepting a win that he knows his team didnt earn. The integrity of football in general is being questioned this year, even the new orleans saints team. With proven affidavits against Vilma and the saints players, i think that the saints superbowl victory should be taken back and rescinded because it was unfairly won with them using a bounty program to produce the results. Roger Gooddell is a complete jerk and a fraud and i hope that he steps down as commissioner and lets someone else more competent like Pete Rozelle to take over for him.
After further review...
September 26th, 2012
1:34 pm
Sally -
Do you imagine that the same Pete Carrol who presided over the USC Trojans and got them put on probation (as he left for the pros) is going to let a tainted win at the next level trouble him?
After further review...
September 26th, 2012
4:51 pm
I have no love for unions, either, James. However, if you come to me, hat in hand, looking for a raise and I say no, you are always free to go to a competitor to see if they will give you a fairer shake. The NFL refs don’t really have that option, as there is no other game in town, so to speak.
The owners are billionaires, and many of them have, or want, stadiums largely at taxpayer expense. That’s corporate welfare, in my book. How is that any better than the refs, who put in a lot of work outside of the games (keeping current with rule changes, fo rone), asking for a few extra scraps?
Rich Black
September 26th, 2012
5:00 pm
Who cares????
Jeremiah Wright
September 26th, 2012
11:27 pm
Jeff Schultz and JSS have mastered Saul Alinsky. According to Alinsky, the main job of the organizer is to bait an opponent into reacting. “The enemy properly goaded and guided in his reaction will be your major strength.”
Jeremiah Wright
September 27th, 2012
9:25 am
Please don’t “moderate” me. I was only responding to the poster “After further review.” It was a sarcastic statement reflecting on “After’s” implication of class warfare. We all know what Jeremiah Wright said, if you are news-knowledgeable at all. THERE IS NO REASON TO “MODERATE” THIS.
jimmyB
September 27th, 2012
11:29 am
Love the moniker (after further review), which you’ve had for while, in that it is so tongue in cheek apprpriate now. I defintely agree that taxpayers shouldn’t be paying for stadiums. And Jeremiah – Nice historical reference to Journalism 101 (Alinsky, of course).
And this has no connection, no seque to anything, but Term Limits for Senators and Representatives would solve a lot of things except this referee thing. lol
Jeremiah Wright
September 27th, 2012
11:46 am
The world is burning and we are more concerned with football refs………………………….
After further review...
September 27th, 2012
1:08 pm
Jeremiah -
No class warfare intended in my remarks. Simply pointing out that the owners are certainly willing to ask for subsidies from the public, but, at least in this case, didn’t seem to want to pony up anything for the refs.
Now that an agreement has apparently been reached, we won’t have to worry about the replacement refs for a while.
Jeremiah Wright
September 27th, 2012
2:37 pm
After, I’m with you.
Jeremiah Wright
September 27th, 2012
4:13 pm
Billy, watch out for JSS. He is trying to bait you into saying something wrong and get you banned.
This is the type of guy he is. He follows the teachings of Saul Alinsky.
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September 29th, 2012
5:23 am
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Jeremiah Wright
September 29th, 2012
10:33 pm
JSS would stab his mother in the back, just for kicks. That’s the type of guy he is.