NFL rule about bad officiating

[Sperm Edwards]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=5727680

Childress was critical in his postgame news conference, but he was considerably harsher in an interview with the Vikings' radio network when he called Sunday's loss "the worst officiated game I've ever seen."

Childress was particularly critical of a second-quarter touchdown reception by Vikings tight end Visanthe Shiancoe that was overturned by replay. The replay review determined Shiancoe didn't have proper possession of the ball as he landed after his diving catch.

But Childress said Monday he called the league and NFL vice president of officiating Carl Johnson acknowledged the call was a mistake. Childress revealed at his news conference that Johnson said he was "disappointed that the call was reversed."

Spokesman Greg Aiello said league policy is not to comment on conversations between Johnson and the clubs. Aiello said Johnson "is obligated to give his factual opinion of any call that is questioned by a club." But the policy also "states that all such conversations are confidential and are not to be discussed publicly," Aiello said.

So apparently if the league acknowledges that the refs blew a key call, no one is permitted to acknowledge that the league acknowledged what they acknowledged.

If the league knows it was a bad call, why pretend publicly that no bad call was made?

But more disturbing is that there are no repercussions for an NFL official that ignores the rule that says overturning a call on the field can only be in the face of conclusive, indisputable evidence. Does a ref get fined? Does he lose his game check? Does he get suspended? Nope. He gets the league covering for him and no one's allowed to say dick about it.

I have no love for the Vikings and I love watching Favre lose, but there are a ton of Vikings fans getting screwed over. 4 point swing in a game they lost by 4 points. Not to mention it takes Favre out of panic-mode where he generally sucks. If they're up 21-20 may he doesn't panic and doesn't throw a pick-6. And maybe GB wins by 20 in a different situation.

Making a bad, non-reversible call on the field is one thing. In real-time things sometimes happen fast and if the ref is looking elsewhere for a split second, he misses it. But overturning a TD is weak, and the league keeping their admission hush-hush is like destroying NE's cheating tapes. Now Childress is going to get fined for (truthfully) saying that the league admits the call was blown. What a bunch of garbage. The only silver lining is that Favre's idiotically selfish streak may come to an end at long last, and that his panic-picks lost another game.

[newjakecity]

It's not shocking. Officiating seems to have gotten worse every year. What's more troubling is that it seems the same teams get the good calls every year. When a coach doesn't perform, he gets fired. When a player doesn't perform, he gets cut. When an NFL official doesn't perform, not only do you have the NFL breaking their backs to make sure that nobody criticizes the sacred cows known as the NFL officials, but you have too many fans that seem to take the attitude of "Never use the officials as an excuse" or "If you were really good, you would have won in spite of the officiating".

[spjets]

officiating has been horrible this year..its amazing how bad they are..even with REVIEWING.

[visajets]

Why is anyone surprised by this. Lets not forget the home opener against the Ravens the officiating sucked.

[Matt39]

After every big play I come to expect a flag now.

The pass interference calls this season have been a joke.

[Sperm Edwards]

After every big play I come to expect a flag now.

The pass interference calls this season have been a joke.

Yeah, same here.

I think the refs believe the fans came to see them throw flags for 3 hours.

[AGAW]

If I was a little bit dumber and little bit blinder, I could be an NFL official

[Jetsfan80]

Yeah, same here.

I think the refs believe the fans came to see them throw flags for 3 hours.

And they're going to keep throwing flags until DB's get the message and leave those poor WR's the f*** alone.

[#27TheDominator]

And they're going to keep throwing flags until DB's get the message and leave those poor WR's the f*** alone.

I don't see what the big deal is. I'm sick of seeing people blame the refs for everything and claiming the Patriots get all the calls. The Patriots are a smart, well-coached football team. During an NFL game the DB has 3 choices:

1. Try to stop the WR from catching the pass. Receive a pass interference call.

2. Let the WR catch the ball and attempt to disloge the ball. Receive an unecessary roughness penalty, risk fines and/or suspension.

3. Let the WR catch the ball, don't touch him and hope that he just drops it on the floor allowing you to pick up a live ball.

The Patriots are not getting the benefit of bad officiating, they are simply playing smart football.

[Matt39]

Can someone logically explain why an illegal contact penalty is an automatic first down?

The refs always seem to make this call on 3rd and longs, away from the ball, awarding a team another possession. 90% of the time there's hardly any contact. That, to me, is by far the worst penalty in the NFL. It shouldnt be an automatic first down.

[sirlancemehlot]

And they're going to keep throwing flags until DB's get the message and leave those poor WR's the f*** alone.

denver game had as many offensive pi's as defensive. i say--if your head is turnd to the ball--you can sodomize each other for all i care. its football, man.

[Klecko73isGod]

I don't see what the big deal is. I'm sick of seeing people blame the refs for everything and claiming the Patriots get all the calls. The Patriots are a smart, well-coached football team. During an NFL game the DB has 3 choices:

1. Try to stop the WR from catching the pass. Receive a pass interference call.

2. Let the WR catch the ball and attempt to disloge the ball. Receive an unecessary roughness penalty, risk fines and/or suspension.

3. Let the WR catch the ball, don't touch him and hope that he just drops it on the floor allowing you to pick up a live ball.

The Patriots are not getting the benefit of bad officiating, they are simply playing smart football.

Huh?

[Boozer76]

Huh?

You see that there thing flying over your head?

[Klecko73isGod]

You see that there thing flying over your head?

I'm glad someone finally caught my post and mentioned it.

I said "huh?" because no one had mentioned the Pats in this thread prior to the Dominator's post. And as far as the Pats are concerned I think people are more annoyed at them benefitting from their opponents' boneheaded coaching moreso than any gifts they might have gotten from the refs.

The Pats won this past Sunday because Norv Turner is a moronic boob, not because they got any help from the refs.

[#27TheDominator]

I'm glad someone finally caught my post and mentioned it.

I said "huh?" because no one had mentioned the Pats in this thread prior to the Dominator's post. And as far as the Pats are concerned I think people are more annoyed at them benefitting from their opponents' boneheaded coaching moreso than any gifts they might have gotten from the refs.

The Pats won this past Sunday because Norv Turner is a moronic boob, not because they got any help from the refs.

The Pats cheating being overlooked was in the original article.

I'm glad that my point was proven true. The Packers used this philosphy and were granted two interceptions by simply taking the ball away from players on the ground without playing defense or hitting. Very well coached team.