Fail Mary Ref - Who is really at fault?
http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on-football/24960505/fail-mary-ref-is-battling-depression-has-contemplated-suicide
Before I address this, I will admit that I am a Packer fan who fully disagrees with the call that was made. That being said, I do not in any way blame the refs. I place the blame squarely at the feet of the guy who also ignored Ray Rice's situation - none other than Commissioner Roger Goodell.
Nearly any NFL fan today remembers that Monday Night Football game in Seattle. Green Bay had the lead, and a call that was at best questionable on a "Hail Mary" play gave Seattle the victory. I don't think I need to say any more. But why is Goodell to blame?
The best way I can answer the question is to say why the replacement refs were in the game in the first place. They were only taking the place of the normal refs because of the labor dispute between the officials and the league. As the entity doling out the checks, the NFL no doubt could have easily ended the dispute at any time, which would then prevented this from happening. However, the NFL refused to settle it, then the Fail Mary happened, right on the heels of a questionable field goal call in a Patriots-Ravens game.
Following that game, the labor dispute was very quickly resolved. Sounds like a miracle, right? Well, it seems more likely than anything that the NFL was being cheap. They wanted to show the refs that they could be replaced easily, and thus were not worth as much. The replacements quickly proved they were not up to the speed of the game, and thus were unable to do the job. They were not qualified, and thus we should not be surprised that there were as many horrible calls as there were. Now that being said, that is not intended to blame the replacements. They should not be expected to be able to keep up with the speed of the game. It is entirely unfair to them, and the top brass of both the NFL and the Officials' Union should have known that. Now the price is being paid by the replacements who have to live with the negative publicity for the rest of their lives. Simply put, this should never have happened.
