Sometimes in our lives, we are witness to something so unusual, so ludicrous, so impossibly wrong that we hope to never see it again and will pray we never do. These include Justin Bieber music videos,sweaty back cleavage and the humiliating of peopleofwalmart.com.
However the events that occurred on this weeks MNF game were beyond the point of ludicrous, hardly entertaining and impossibly frustrating for fans of football everywhere.
Replacement officials are dismembering this game. Piece by piece, they are destroying every shred of credibility that the worlds highest level of organized football has to offer, and they are making it a complete and utter joke.
Except we're all done laughing.
I watch NFL games every week and what I see are not men who have officiated at the highest levels of college football for years, I see a bumbling squadron of clowns who traded in their red noses and Ronald McDonald shoes for pinstripes and a whistle.
Was there even some form of testing before these men were deemed appropriate replacements for qualified, capable men like Ed Hochuli? If so, did they have, at the very least, an old high school gym teacher come in to teach them the rules of football? I'm frankly not sure if that was even done, seeing how intent the NFL is on not paying old men to do their jobs. This entire issue is caused by the childish fighting between two groups of stubborn men fighting over who gets the most clams. We have a league that declares itself as "fighting for player safety" and yet players face more risk of injury than ever as cheap shots and extra fluff after the whistle go seemingly unnoticed by replacement officials.
There's an old saying that you don't really know what you've got till its gone. It might seem relevant to this situation based on the amount of harassment the regular officials receive from around the league in their line of work. Frankly, yeah, I'm gonna admit, that's is me. To a T. I always carried a little doubt in my mind about the ability of officials in this league but with what I see on the field these days, I'd counter with another adage;
Beggars can't be choosers.
And make no mistake people, we are, in fact, beggars. We need football more than we should, it's a pleasure, and a vice, and a reward all at the same time. The things this country has done in the spirit of football dwarf the attention some countries give to foreign policy. We will drive a gas guzzling suburban 250 miles to tailgate at an away game, and if the officials miss calls, then by jove we'll let them know it. We are held captive by the very sport we enjoy as entertainment, and the thought of anyone, or any group of middle aged, colorblind, stuttering clowns ruining our beloved sport drives us crazy.
And to clarify, I'm not angry that one of the replacements is an outspoken Saints fan. I'm not angry they instituted the first female referee (one of the only benefits of this dark period) or that she plays poker on the weekends as a hobby. I'm honestly not worried that this group will fail to leave their personal agenda at home and affect games negatively based on their personal hobbies. I AM worried that they will ruin games with their obvious lack of familiarity with the rule book. The problem is that we know, for a fact, that they have given teams unwarranted possessions, time outs, additional penalty yards and have even told players to step it up for their fantasy teams. That is the sort of stuff that honestly just can't happen. It will single handedly undermine the integrity of this game.
After these officials horribly botched the big call in Monday Night Football in front of a huge national audience, the situation has reached a boiling point. Players and coaches, generally seeking to refrain from bad mouthing officials in all but the worst circumstances, are coming out of the woodwork with complaints. The NFL sits in this precarious position with what is hopefully an open mind and one that realizes the potential damage to the league and their customer base the longer these men call the games. It will get much much worse before it gets any better, and I fear we may see ever increasing drastic measures being taken on and off the field that will create further issues.
So please, casual or dedicated fans of the NFL, take a moment out of your busy day to write to your local hometown NFL commissioner and tell him how angry replacement officials make you. We're not even going to have a hockey season due to OTHER groups of old men bickering over money, so we can't afford losing this football season as well. And please, if you see a replacement official on the streets, make sure you throw a damn rulebook at him-or her.
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