You must have misunderstood my initial post on the matter. I said "entire salary for the game" which would be a week's salary. It sounds like we are in heated agreement.
I have a hard time siding with the NFL refs.
- Thread starter BigCojones
- Start date
You must have misunderstood my initial post on the matter. I said "entire salary for the game" which would be a week's salary. It sounds like we are in heated agreement.
For me its less so the calls made that are making me less likely to watch and more the refs not controlling the game. Whatever game it was I watched last Sunday where the first half took forever because the players kept getting into shoving matches and a brawl almost broke out ****** me off more than anything and made me change the channel. I had never seen anything like it in all my years of watching football.
Obviously they should have thrown the flag for "giving him the business".
[video=youtube;iNoy1yKmcRw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNoy1yKmcRw[/video]
I'm not sure where the video went as it was here initially, but if it isn't showing up for you go see it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNoy1yKmcRw
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I was agreeing with on the fine because I thought that it might be a little steep in your original post but the way I read the agreement is that the team couldn't fine the player anymore than one week unless they want to take the chance and suspend them for 4 weeks without pay.
I would say it's definite hypocrisy. Regular refs screw up a call or two a game, so do these refs. They might call a different style of game, but in the games I've watched so far I haven't seemed unfair or poorly officiated. Initially, they were a bit tentative and maybe took a little long on calls, but they seem to have things down.
A bigger turn off for me is the announcers complaining all game long about how they don't like the replacement officials. That gets old very fast for me.
My understanding is the main sticking point is the pension, something that no other even full-time NFL employee currently receives. Also, I thought the officiating the last two seasons was horrible. The NY Giants - Green Bay game was one of the worst officiated games I had seen, and I was completely neutral. I would like to see the old refs back, and then I'd like to see them scrutinized to the same extent the replecement refs have been.
Jason Whitlock has made this point a couple times and it's a point I actually agree with him on. The NFL media wouldn't dare talk about coaches/players/original refs like they are with the replacement refs.
Do they need to also take martial arts or something so they can pull apart players who are 50 pounds heavier and 6 inches taller? I watched one game (Broncos - Hawks) where a brawl almost broke out because some idiot tripped on his own foot and his team thought an opposing player did it. That was going to happen regardless of the officials. They had been throwing flags right and left prior to that, the game was getting chippy because the Broncos were losing badly and they were ******. I don't know what else the referees could have done, I doubt the regular referees could have done much more to improve the situation.
The point is, every official is going to make a mistake once in a while. I don't think these officials are making many mistakes above and beyond what the regular ones would. The main issue is that players, coaches, announcers, and fans have taken the attitude that these refs are replacements and are inferior. It's to the point that regardless of the call, it's blamed on replacement refs and usually unjustly. How many dozens of times a game did the regular refs miss holding calls or chippy hand fighting between recievers and defenders, or how many times did they call extremely weak penalties? They made the same mistakes, they just didn't get the "Replacement Ref" flack.
I think you've not watched an NFL game before this season. I watched that game, no way would the real refs have let the two teams push and shove for as long as the "refs" did. The players know these "refs" have no idea what they're doing and are completely out of their depth and they're taking every advantage of it they can.
There is zero consistency between calls, even in the same game. Real officials don't spot balls incorrectly, they don't forget to stop the clock, they don't give extra timeouts, they don't mark off 11 yards on a 5 yard penalty.
There is zero consistency between calls, even in the same game. Real officials don't spot balls incorrectly, they don't forget to stop the clock, they don't give extra timeouts, they don't mark off 11 yards on a 5 yard penalty.
I agree that the tone by the media has been pretty negative and some of it my be unwarranted, but the problem is that when you see a missed call now you wonder did the ref not call it. Was it because he is inexperienced and didn't see it or did he not call it because he is letting it go? I think most people believe it is more of the latter when it could be the former in some instances. Also people will have in the back of their mind that there are better officials out there who are not being used who may have called it differently had they been there.
Whats funny is that none of the adults playing the game are being held accountable for being adults. If these grown men want to act like children, how can you expect some parttime refs to step in the middle and tell them to grow up?
And while there have been some bad calls, nothing has turned a game yet. And actually there has been a significant reduction in challenges overturning the call on the field even though the replay officials are the real mccoy.
I don't expect part time wannabe refs to be able to do anything, which is why we need the real refs back that know how the NFL works.
There have been some completely unacceptable calls that have made very significant differences in games. No one call has cost a team a game, yet, although giving the Seahawks 4 timeouts was pretty close, but more than once they've let minutes wind off the clock when they shouldn't, who knows what a team does if it has those minutes back. Waiving off penalties they shouldn't, calling illegal blocks that aren't. They tried to give the Ravens a fumble on what was clearly an incomplete pass, thankfully the real ref in the booth corrected it. How about this from this weekend:
This a thousand times. It is embarassing to watch the refs struggle with some calls (I can't believe after watching Don King in the preseason that they are still letting that guy work) and they really mess with the tempo of games with all the huddling up and discussing, making me less likely to keep watching a game. The thing that bothers me the most though is how much coaches are trying to bully these guys. I have always liked John Fox but watching him tear into the refs every second...the bit is getting old. They're trying to get away with stuff that is absolutely against the rules, like declining a false start...I have a hard time believing someone that has been involved in football for decades doesn't know that means the play never happened.
I think overall the replacement refs have done a hell of a job considering most of them are from D2, D3 and even high school refs. D1 guys won't do it because of their loyalty and allot are friends with NFL refs. I do agree there have been more uncertain calls and stopagge of play which slows down the game and momentum, that sucks but it's part of the game and teams have to live with it. Don't blame the replacement officials as they have been thrown into the situation with little training and trying to interpret 113 pages (2011 NFL rule book) of rules in a very short amount of time. Blame the owners and Roger Goodell for throwing these guys into the lions den when they knew they'd get eaten up.
"How Much Does an NFL Referee Make?
The average salary that an NFL referee earns per year nests between the sums of $25,000 and $70,000. This is not as much as the referees for others like the NHA and NBA make. The umpires in Major League Baseball make around $141,000 annually. The NBA referees make around $128,000 annually and the NHL officials earn around $139,000 annually. By looking at these sums, individuals will see that the NFL referees are at the bottom of the charts when it comes to the amount of money they earn. However, one has to consider the fact that an NFL referee works one game a week, while referees in the other sports work multiple games per week. The job of NFL referee required flexibility and go through training before match."
Highest-Paid NFL Referees – Average Salary of an NFL Referee ‹ The Richest People In The World 2012
"How Much Does an NFL Referee Make?
The average salary that an NFL referee earns per year nests between the sums of $25,000 and $70,000. This is not as much as the referees for others like the NHA and NBA make. The umpires in Major League Baseball make around $141,000 annually. The NBA referees make around $128,000 annually and the NHL officials earn around $139,000 annually. By looking at these sums, individuals will see that the NFL referees are at the bottom of the charts when it comes to the amount of money they earn. However, one has to consider the fact that an NFL referee works one game a week, while referees in the other sports work multiple games per week. The job of NFL referee required flexibility and go through training before match."
Highest-Paid NFL Referees – Average Salary of an NFL Referee ‹ The Richest People In The World 2012
Your first paragraph illustrates my whole point. It's all about perception. The players think these refs don't deserve respect, therefore they don't give it to them. The refs were in there, trying to get the players separated but they got no respect so the players just stayed where they were and the situation kept escalating. And like someone else said, can't these players act like adults and not break out into a brawl when something doesn't go their way?
Maybe I don't watch enough NFL games, I'm not a big NFL fan by any means. But I highly doubt that the regular NFL refs are perfect on any of those areas you mentioned (except maybe the timeouts, that one is definitely bad). In any given game there are several controversial calls and bad spots. Occasionally they even mark off the wrong yardage on a penalty. I'm just getting very tired of the whining about these refs and it kills what little interest in the NFL that I had.
They don't deserve respect, they're terrible at their jobs. Be decent at your job and you'll get some respect.
