How’s it going sports fans? For my fellow Canadians out there, I would like to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving! I hope y’all enjoyed some good food and time with family and friends! Now time to get down to business. Even though I had a blast spending Thanksgiving with my family on Monday, my mood changed when I tuned in to the second half of the Monday Night Football game between the Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a big Aaron Rodgers fan, so you would think I would be happy that the Packers came back to win the game. Yeah, I like my teams to win the old fashion fair way though; which means that the referees make the NECESSARY calls in the game! I witnessed the unnecessary roughness call made on the Lions defense, and guys, that was not even CLOSE to unnecessary roughness! That call pretty much cost the Lions the game, as they were leading 22-20 with a few minutes left in the 4th. Now when I say that NFL fans were furious after the game, y’all need to see their comments online! Quite honestly, I don’t blame them one bit.
I may have not been privy to all the missed calls from not only this game, but other games this season, but I do know this: I thought the refereeing situation would improve after last year’s NFC Championship game fiasco. For those who need the reference, there was a blatant pass interference call that was missed when a Rams defensive player pretty much tackled a Saints wide receiver with minutes to go in the 4th quarter. I remember standing up at the bar in the utmost frustration, not only because I wanted Drew Brees and the Saints to be in the Superbowl, but because you cannot get more obvious than that for pass interference- or so we thought. The NFL officiating crisis has been noted for a while now by fans, and the Saints fiasco stirred up talks about the organization rigging its games, especially after this Monday Night Football game.
The Saints NFC Championship game incident was not only obvious to Saints coach, Sean Payton, and the players; but even the Rams defensive back, Nickell Robey-Coleman, admitted to committing pass interference to save a touchdown! On top of that, the head of NFL officiating, Al Riveron, talked to the coach after the game, saying the call was blown, according to Payton. With circumstances like these, it’s hard not to wonder what would have happened if the flag was thrown, with 1:45 left in the last quarter and the Saints at the 13-yard line. The Saints were tied with the Rams 20-20, facing 3rd and 10, in which they could have ran the clock down after gaining a 1st down. Payton said this was a “Superbowl call,” which makes us NFL fans wonder if the conspiracy is in fact true: that the NFL is rigging the system for their own gain.
I never really thought about the possibility, but after talking to some fans and doing some digging, I discovered that the NFL decided against saying they, as an organization, screwed up not calling the missed pass interference. Refereeing methods are also way out of date, especially the mechanisms in determining illegal hits during games. Officiating analysts, Mike Pereira and Dean Blandino, have commented on structural problems affecting referees, such as too many complications in the rule book. While that may be true, structure did not come in play with the Saints missed pass interference call, as well as the Lions terrible unnecessary roughness call! The organization promised to look into this matter, but as the season progresses, it just looks like officiating is getting worse each game.
That’s all for this week folks! Feel free to comment guys, I’m on twitter @MoniqueYip, so follow up, and I also live stream on at Sportscastr during the NFL season! See y’all next week!