It seems clear to me that the NFL is not really concerned about it’s teams and players. All they really care about is profit and maintaining the status quo as they define it. And their current definition includes the protection of their NFL Replacement Officials.

Hey, profit is important, but the NFL  has taken this to another level.  Given the opportunity to make amends and overturn last night’s Replacement Ref’s egregious mistakes, they turned to the strict interpretation of the rules and refused to directly address the most obvious deficiencies of the NFL Replacement Officials.  Here is a video on the most egregious and final play of the game… compliments of the NFL:

If you watched any news today, you know that the overwhelming public and professional opinion is that the NFL Replacement Officials blew this call on the Inaccurate Reception (Term Coined by ESPN’s Adam Shefter).   The NFL supported the decision made by these NFL Replacement Officials.

I don’t have anything against these officials.  They have a tough job.  And, I’m not going to comment on whether or not the NFL should bring back the more experienced “professionals.”  They too have made mistakes.  It’s a tough job.  However, with that said Monday nights game was an aberration of bad calls. Consequently, it’s the responsibility of the NFL to act as the final arbitrator  in this situation.  And, they failed miserably!

The simultaneous ruling on possession (in the video) was simply the icing on this rotten cake. This was preceded by an offensive pass interference that was totally missed by the NFL Replacement Officials.  The NFL claimed this was a missed call.  That’s it.  The game should have ended on that call.,. according to the official NFL statement.  Sorry Green Bay, your team management, your players and your fans.  We won’t give you this win.

And, we won’t examine any other circumstances and weigh them into this decision.  We don’t care if on your opponents preceding drive that the NFL Replacement officials made two other huge mistakes.  The roughing the passer call which cancelled out your defensive back’s interception was simply a mistake made by our officials.  Too bad!  That could have changed the course of the game and it probably would have.  Sorry they didn’t know that your linebacker made a good tackle when the opponent quarterback was out of the pocket.  Better luck next time!

Oh, and that pass interference call in the same series… it doesn’t matter that everyone in America saw the mauling your opponent’s receiver delivered to your defensive back. Our NFL Replacement Officials saw that as defensive pass interference; not offensive pass interference.  Please understand, football fans don’t know the rules, so our guys can make any ruling they want; because they are our guys.  They are employees of the NFL.  And, we don’t care about what you think you saw on the replay.  We want to provide you a true “game experience” so that you can see exactly what our refs see and rule on. They are the true professionals!  …give me a break!

There were other bad calls made by the NFL Replacement Officials throughout the game.  Some went in favor of Green Bay and some in favor of Seattle.  But, they were relatively balanced… so they didn’t really have an significant impact on the game.  And, there were circumstances when the replacement officials made some darn good calls.  However, in the end, they virtually gave the game to Seattle; and this is just plain wrong!

So, what am I saying?  I believe in justice.  And, as a football fan, I did not see justice in the NFL’s decision to uphold the the Seattle victory.  I saw no flexibility or concern for right or wrong.   If you look at this objectively, you might consider what I’m saying as a viable alternative to the NFL’s decision.  They should have recognized the trend over the final few minutes of the game.  Seattle has no momentum.  Green Bay controlled the game.  If it were not for the four clear mistakes made by their NFL Replacement Officials, Green Bay would have won that game.

I believe that is why folks have such a negative opinion about the NFL these days.  There is no right and wrong.  The replacement officials have a tough job.  But, the NFL is the final arbitrator.  It was their responsibility to do the right thing, and that just did not happen. They showed absolutely no flexibility or wisdom in their ruling.  Too bad!  A little wisdom might have been a great solution.