It's really Arthur Blank and his cronies that are really at fault, or at least equally at fault. Somebody, whether it's Artie, Robert Kraft, Paul Allen, or RG1 has gotta step up and say Enough is Enough and get the regular guys back.
They don't call perfect games, but they clearly have a firm understanding of the rule book. It's one thing to blow a call because you just missed it. The human eye can register only so much. But it's completely different when you blow a call because you don't know the rule.
IMO, I believe the ref called that a TD because he was applying the collegiate rule that a tie goes to the offensive player. Which is the rule in the NFL with the caveat that if the defensive player establishes possession first, it's his ball. That was what clearly happened, and it's not like this was a call made at full speed. They reviewed it carefully, and still blew the call.
The whole situation is a clusterfudge. And it's ridiculous when you consider what Peter King wrote today, in that is basically like $3 million that separates them and the refs. Think about that when you consider it was a $1 billion that kept the owners and players apart, and this ref lockout has run about the same amount of time.
Peter King wrote:
Many of you wonder why the league can't solve this puzzle after getting the jillion-dollar CBA and TV deals done last year. A couple of reasons. Many of you think for 120 part-time officials to get an average of $38,250 per year in pension contributions is excessive. But the regular officials are simply trying to keep a benefit they've had for the last several years. The league contributed $5.3 million to officials' pensions last year and propose to contribute $2 million this year; the cut, the league says, is in keeping with pension plans around the country going to a 401k pension plan, subject to the whims of the stock market, rather than guaranteeing retirees a fixed return on their investments. What's $3 million to the NFL? That's only partially the point. The league has made many full-time employees take the lesser pension, so how can they give part-timers a better deal?
And the league wants a plug-and-play farm system of three officiating crews to be developed, so that if, say, a back judge is struggling or has to retire, the league will have an immediate replacement. The officials are balking at the reduction in job security.
It's only a matter of time before some gaffe like a 27-yard penalty or two extra challenges costs some team a game it should have won. I think the league is going to have to compromise more than it wants to. The alternative is just too ugly. We've seen the alternative play out too often over the last eight days.
Read more:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/w ... z27SaWNJae
