Replacement Referee Debacle in Packers-Seahawks MNF Game a Black Mark for Roger Goodell, NFL

I have a message for Green Bay Packers Nation:

Please, quit breaking TV screens and going into atrial fibrillation over your football team. The world did not come to an end last night.

Even though the Packers did lose on one of the most dubious officiating mistakes in NFL history.

Monday Night Debacle

Golden Tate did clearly push off on the final play. And video shows that Russell Wilson’s pass was indeed intercepted by Green Bay’s M.D. Jennings in the end zone.

But after what has been seen in the National Football League in just the last seven days, you knew how this was going to end – in a total debacle that should FINALLY see the eight-week reign of XFL/Danny Davis types working NFL sidelines come to a close.

The Milwaukee paper has the headline right – ‘Packers interception gives Seahawks victory‘, or another heading that made its way on social media quickly after the game that proclaimed ‘After Further Review, TOUCHDOWN CELTICS!!!’

Do not call it ‘controversial’. There is no controversy when the call is 100 percent wrong and anarchy prevails.

But this is not even the worst hose job endured by the Packers in the last three years. Anyone remember facemask/Aaron Rodgers/Arizona/overtime/Wild Card Playoff??? And that game was called by the varsity officials.

That playoff call three years ago ended Green Bay’s season right then and there.

This wasn’t even the first time Green Bay has endured a bad beat in Seattle at least in part due to the refs. See Cullen Jenkins/roughing the passer/2006, although there was also that call with Erik Walden.

Last night’s call goes down in instant infamy, but it is also only a single loss that drops the Packers to 1-2 on the season. They still get 13 more games to play.

In fact, on Sunday the Packers have a game against the New Orleans Saints, the one fan base that despises the man who runs the NFL even more than the Packers.

The Saints’ wisest move might be not to even book a flight to Wisconsin next weekend. The Packers will be ready.

But back to Monday night’s Instant Disaster.

Black Mark for Goodell, NFL

Commissioner Roger Goodell, and the owners he represents, did not get it through their stubborn skulls when his league went through a nationally televised near four-hour embarrassment with the Broncos and Falcons last Monday night.

Goodell and the owners probably didn’t even get the message after the Patriots/Ravens Sunday Night game, which ended with fans chanting ‘BULLSHIT’ on national television for five minutes non-stop and both coaches literally ready to strangle the substitute refs, which will probably also see Bill Belichick served with a fine or suspension.

What the NFL needed was THE PERFECT STORM, which we knew for sure was going to happen with Russell Wilson involved and one last shot at the 24-yard line (he was involved on the receiving end of two such finishes at the University of Wisconsin less than a year ago).

Good for Wilson (a class act, as UW Badgers fans know), good for Pete Carroll, and good for the Seattle Seahawks.  A well-earned ‘victory’ for them, as it will show in the official standings.

As GB coach Mike McCarthy pointed out in his post-game presser, if his team had executed in previous plays earlier in the game, it wouldn’t have come down to a final play with the scab refs getting an opportunity to decide the outcome.

In fact, McCarthy talked about himself ‘taking responsibility’, perhaps pointing to in part the previous possession where Green Bay only needed one first down to kill the clock and Cedric Benson was lucky not to turn the ball over on his own one-yard line.

In defeat McCarthy showed his true class – he actually should had just taken a cue from Bo Ryan and rolled with ‘violence is out of the question’, as a coach like Harbaugh or Belichick may well have.

Meanwhile, moments after the game I was held up to the coals by someone who says that I referred to the substitutes as being ‘fine’ two weeks ago.

I am sure this person has an e-mail or a text to back his claim, and in fact I may well be guilty as charged. Here is what I meant to say back then, and say now:

As work stoppages go, NFL officials do not directly affect quality of life, unless you have THAT MUCH invested in the Packers or any other NFL team.

This is not the Chicago Public School teachers going on strike.

This is not the Air Traffic Controllers going on strike in 1981 and ultimately all getting fired by the President of the United States.

This isn’t even the first time an NFL season had opened with replacement officials. It happened in 2001, the sides settled quietly after the first week, while the aftermath of September 11^th was going on.

There is one huge silver lining to Monday night: Roger Goodell’s legacy is forever marred, or it should be.

Baseball commissioner Bud Selig continues to be measured by allowing an All-Star game (WHICH WAS AN EXHIBITION!!!) to end in a tie after 11 innings. Selig throwing his arms up in the air to the umpires remains an enduring legacy by many fans and media members.

Well, that’s nothing compared to allowing three games out of a 16-game regular season schedule to be compromised by quickly assembled crews out of the ranks of lower-tier college football, arena football, and even ‘lingerie football’.

The National Football League can continue to talk themselves up as the greatest game on the planet and put out ads about the legacy of NFL Films and the recently deceased Steve Sabol.

But there’s no way the league will be adding Pats/Ravens or Packers/Seahawks to its ‘Greatest Game/Instant Classic’ collection anytime soon, even though both games were very compelling in regards to the actual teams on the field.

There would be too much video editing necessary, and not even the best Sam Spence composition can hide the ugly pimple that his become NFL officiating 2012.

By the time you read this Tuesday morning, there could even be a settlement, and I would not be surprised. You might turn on Browns/Ravens on Thursday night, and there may be Hochuli or Mike Carey or whomever, like they never left.

Keep this in mind however: the fustercluck will continue for weeks to come, even with an immediate settlement. Among other things, NFL officials have not been allowed access to their league website, and have not been given access on new specific rules or points of emphasis for the 2012 season.

Years from now, this debacle will remain a far larger nightmare to Roger Goodell than to the Packers or the men who bravely signed up for the hopeless, temporary assignment of being in a profession for which they are in way over their heads.

Anyone in favor of Dana White for NFL commish??

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