[Andy]

Mike - I am in complete agreement with you about not getting in the middle of players going at it. I'm not a bouncer on the softball field.

As you stated, the NFL has a different perspective regarding their officials intervening between players. I think the biggest concern in the Quirk incident was that he ended up holding the Packer player around the neck, which had the potential for greater injury to the player. In the earlier incident from the second article, he grabbed the player around the waist and pulled him away from the incident. Probably not much more contact than any other play.

I'm not sure an entire game fee was an appropriate fine, since Mr. Quirk was simply doing his job as instructed by his supervisors. I believe there needs to be some repercussions due to the fact that Mr. Quirk did pull the Packer player down by his neck. I'm definitely not one for throwing a fellow official in any sport under the bus, but I do believe that officials should be held accountable for their actions.

I just don't know what the right answer is in this particular situation is.