Replacement Refs

Sunday Night Football announcers continuously flogged the “replacement refs” to the detriment of the game. I don’t mean the refs, I mean the announcers. Forget about the stupid refs, you morons, we turn on the television to watch the football players.

Both teams are being called by the same set of refs, and the “bad calls” go one way as often as they do the other. I assume the dispute is about money, but I don’t care. I don’t care about the stupid refs. When I watch football I am watching the guys wearing helmets and, occasionally the girls wearing short skirts. I am not watching the referees to see how well they are performing. I don’t care how well they are performing.

At the end of the Packers-Seahawks game there was apparently a bad call that cost the Packers the game. I didn’t see it because I don’t watch football on ESPN. All football announcers are idiots, but that crowd is insufferable. I have watched the clips online and, yes, that was a bad call, but the only reason that it “gave the game to Seattle” was that it happened at the end of the game. Further, had Green Bay played up to its usual 23 points instead of the lousy 12 points it had, this call would not have mattered. One play does not make a game.

The regular refs blow calls too. Ask San Diego about Ed Hoculi. The call he blew here in the Denver game was a lot more flagrant that that call, and it not only cost San Diego the game, it took them out of the playoffs. After that whenever he was assigned to officiate a game in San Diego he wore a bullet proof vest, and was booed more loudly that the Chargers team was after their debacle this past Sunday.

Stuff happens. Coaches need to get over it and deal with what is within their control. Players need to shut up and just play football. For the fans, there is still plenty of excitement and fun; quit focusing on what might be wrong and just enjoy what is still right and valuable about America's favorite game.