Monday, September 17, 2012

Replacement Refs

Replacement refs voting on a call?
I got to watch the Eagles-Ravens game yesterday, won by the Eagles! It was an exciting game, though greatly marred by the ineptitude of the replacement referees. They were simply terrible! I do not think they slanted the outcome of the game one way or the other - I'm talking about simple things, like, where to spot the ball. There was one point in the game that just got absurdly comical. The Eagles intercepted a pass and following that was a personal foul against the Ravens. The refs had to discuss at length where to place the ball - do they add on 15 yards from where the Eagles player was down, or from the spot of the personal foul?? I knew the answer to that in Elementary School! As a result, they spotted the ball in three different places before finally letting play resume. Good grief. Then there was not knowing how many yards offensive pass interference was, that holding close to the end zone is not the full distance of the penalty but "half the distance," and more. Simple stuff, but they kept messing it up, having to discuss, change, stop, restart . . . I'll bet they added 20 minutes to the length of the game going through all this. Terrible. Please, Mr. Goodell, bring back the real refs. Please.

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