Bring Back The Real Refs!

Watching this year's NFL games with the replacement referees is really tweaking my nerves. Their ridiculous antics continue to give the NFL more reasons to give the real refs what they're asking for. Football is a huge business and nothing less than professional officiating should be accepted. Fans spend a lot of money on tickets, jerseys, memorabilia and in my particular case, beer. So, as die-hard football fans, don't we deserve better than this?

At times, the game has looked more like a Three Stooges episode rather than a professional football game. The replacement refs have shown on numerous occasions that they don't even understand the rules. I can understand a referee missing a call every now and then, but at the very least, he should know the rules. Here are a few of the better moments from this season:

• Rams running back, Steven Jackson, fumbled the ball and it was recovered by the Redskins. Although the play was ruled a fumble by the officials, the Ram's head coach threw the challenge flag. Then after the review, the ball was awarded back to the Rams. One major problem: A coach is NOT allowed to challenge a play when a fumble is ruled on the field. Actually, the Rams should have been hit with a 15 yard penalty for challenging a "non-challengable" play.
• Bengals QB Andy Dalton threw an incomplete pass to AJ Green. All right class, who can tell me what happens to the clock when there's an incomplete pass? That's right, the clock stops! But the officials, who are responsible for monitoring the game clock, didn't catch it and the clock continued to run. I hate when that happens....
• And in last night's game between Atlanta and Denver, a fight broke out on the field. One player threw a punch right in front of the ref which ended with the ref flat on his ass. I seriously think that a regular ref would have tossed the player out of the game. But not the replacement ref. In fact, he didn't even throw a flag!

Are these guys referees or rodeo clowns??

Watching the game over the past couple of weeks, I have seen many blatant calls that were totally missed. Many of which had tremendous potential to change the outcome of the game. Who knows where these guy's heads are? 

And we just informed today  that one of the referees for the Ravens/Eagles game this past Sunday had Philadelphia RB LeSean McCoy on his Fantasy team! I wonder if that was the same ref that threw the bullshit offensive-hold flag on Raven's receiver Jacoby Jones in the end zone?

Maybe I'm being a bit too critical. After all, many of these guys, up until recently, were coaching division II and III schools. And one guy actually came to the big show via the Lingerie Football League! I have to assume that women running around the field in their underwear is vastly different than your average NFL player. Not that I have anything against women running around in their underwear, but....oh nevermind. See how easily one can get distracted with all of this nonsense?

So, Mr. Goodell, do what you've gotta do. But get the professionals back on the field asap! The players and the fans both deserve it! The officiating circus that we've been watching so far this season really needs to pack up and leave town......

kw