Lockout over!!!
 

Now how long will it take for people to claim these guys are not good enough?

Peace

It's about time!

And I guess tomorrow night as a regular crew is working the game tomorrow.

And the officials will be working this weeks games including tomorrow according to some reports on ESPN. So we will see how that works out.

Peace

Pretty Good......
 

NFL gives into public pressure and does right thing by bringing back regular officials - Yahoo! Sports

"After three weeks of blown calls, no calls and reversed calls; of physical contact and verbal intimidation; of confused Vegas bookmakers and infuriated fantasy players; and less than 48 hours after what is perhaps the most bizarre ending to a football game not involving a Stanford trombone player, the NFL and the NFL Referees Association reached an agreement Wednesday."

Hate to be that first crew that has to scramble to Baltimore on less than 24 hours notice.

The report I heard said the officials had been taking rules quizzes and getting fitted for uniforms earlier in the week. It might not have been confirmed, but it wasn't 24 hours notice.

Oh goodie now we can get back to the media and fans whining about the regulars.

Lockout lifted; Regular officials working tonight
 

I've read 3 or 4 news reports, and this is the gist: there is an agreement in principle, but not ratified. However, the lockout has been lifted (much like I predicted) and the regular officials are working tonight's game, as well as those this Sunday. Don't know about this weekend, but it appears the crew tonight was put together solely for this game.

I'm glad that the dispute has been largely settled and we will never see a controversial call in the NFL again.

fixed ;)

Old School!
 

nice!

Las Vegas casino offers refund to Packers-Seahawks bettors - latimes.com

The real reason they are back!!!

No pressure guys!!

"Aggrieved fans will always think referees are incompetent. At least now they know they're qualified to be."

Reporting in Baltimore by Jim Corbett

Sign from Browns vs Ravens Game.....
 

Finally, we get to yell

at the Real Refs!

One of the complaints about the replacements was the length of games, which averaged 3:16. Last night's game went 3:15.

Guess they were right!

LOL...

Watching the game, though, didn't the flow just FEEL more like football than the past 3 weeks have? Flag, inform the ref, walk it off, move on... instead of Flag, doubt yourself, inform the ref, huddle with umpire, announce foul poorly, mispronounce team name, walk it off too far from wrong spot, talk with shady side official in black jacket, rewalk, discuss with umpire again, reannounce foul slightly less poorly, reset, forget to start clock, and move on.

I didn't watch the game, but I would have loved to have seen a play similiar to the one in Seattle on the last play. Wow, did you see the package they got. Not bad for a part-time job.

If the refs don't ratify that, they need to be locked out. I wonder if they got retro pay to boot.

I would have liked to have a nickel for everytime Barkley said, "That's thurrebull", after the game.

I do have a question though. Years ago, the NFL made a team that scored a TD on the last play of game still attempt the extra point. I wonder if it had anything to do with the point spread or the over/under bets.

The end of the Green Bay/Seattle game would been even crazier if the Packers block the point after, and ran it back for the safety to tie the game.

But if I was the coach of the Seahawks, I would have gone for two, and took a knee. However the NFL didn't have the two point conversion rule back then, and the play was dead immediately after blocked kick.

Apparently, you don't. :) :)
Oh dear. Wanna rethink that? 3 mistakes in that short a sentence. Impressive. :)

By NFL rule, if the last play in regulation is a touchdown, the try must be attempted. If this occurred in OT, the try is not attempted. Also, under NFL rules, the try is over as soon as the defense gains possession of the ball and the defense can not score during a try.

Basically, Seattle had absolutely nothing to worry about during the try.

Agree...the flow to the game was infinitely better than the previous 3 weeks. And the mic work from the referee (Gene Steratore) was also infinitely better than just about everything during the past 3 weeks.

Talking about "shady side officials" it surprised me how many times the supposed league representative that was suppose to help with administrative issues gave flat out incorrect information to the replacement officials. I could count at least 3 times they caused/reenforced a rules misapplication.

Lot of folks like Hochuli or Anderson. Steratore is my personal favorite. He just seems to look like he's about 3 seconds away from really just saying "ah screw it"

And even in the codes (NCAA and Canadian) that do allow the defense to score during a conversion, a "safety" is only worth one. To get two requires what would be a touchdown on a normal play.

+1

The flow seemed infinitely better (IMO) even though the time apparently didn't reflect it.

A Canadian defensive safety. I'll have to look that one up! ;)

Also deep in the playoff tiebreakers is point differential. So an extra point COULD theoretically be the difference between making the playoffs or not. However, since the CURRENT system for tiebreakers has been used it has never been used. I can only think of 1 time when it was used and that was in 1979 when Chicago got the 2nd NFC Wild Card berth by better net points in all games. Baiscally that was the point diffferential in all games thar year and the Bears won it by 4 points. On that day they were a -33 to the Redskins going into play but beat the Cardinals by 36 and Washington lost to Dallas by 1 for the finals differential.

I know college basketball officials are independent contractors. But college football officials work for a specific conference, so how come they are not unionized?

They are still independent contractors. They are paid like independent contractors and they are assigned games like independent contractors. They can be replaced anytime and often are replaced.

Peace

Its difficult to unionize when you have multiple employers. NFL officials can be hired and fired based solely on the discretion of the NFL, just like the control college conferences have. The difference is the multitude of college conferences on all levels of college basketball -- NCAA D1, 2, 3, NAIA, and Juco. There are officials who work all of those classifications (some even for both genders). Essentially, collective bargaining wouldn't work for the Big 10 solely (for example), and conferences colluding to bargain collectively would bring up sticky legal issues.

I watched some of a CFL game not long ago. My memory isn't too fresh, but I believe one team was down by one point, and was attempting a field goal, don't remember how long, but doesn't distance count as to the amount of points given. Let's cut back to the chase though. The kicking team missed the attempt, and defensive team had to run the missed kick out of the end zone (or the vast wasteland as I like to call it) to avoid the kicking team getting one point, and tying the score.

My details are sketchy at best.

Correct me if I'm wrong, or even tell me if I got anything right......:)

I was actually harking back to some old rules that were apparently in place back it the 60's. I was aware that Seattle didn't attempt a try after. I thought maybe it had changed when the NFL put in the two point conversion try, and/or overtime.


But then again they had the rule where you couldn't wear white tape to hold up the baseball leggings in which socks had to worn over the stirrups. They had to use what looked to be clear shipping tape to hold them up. What was that all about?

I don't know all the rules, but then again...........that's best reason I have to ask questions.

I thought Seattle did, in fact, kick the extra point in this game.

They did...after about the 5-7 minutes it took for the league representative to tell the officials the try had to be attempted and they had to get 11 players from Green Bay back on the field.

Did anyone notice that the replacement officials didn't have their position (SJ, U, etc.) on their shirt, but the regular ones do? I'm wondering if guys were moved around some and/or the regular guys are using last year's equipment.

Mike Pierra answered this question a couple of weeks ago...they didn't have position letters exactly for the first reason you're thinking...officials weren't "locked" into a position and would allow the league to switch positions if need be.

To add to this, when they were looking for the guys to work during the lockout, it was unclear what positions everyone had worked. So they did not initially give them positions on their back because they did not know if someone would had extensive Referee experience as opposed to wing experience. The Referee that worked the HOF Game was a Referee in D3 and a crew chief, but for the lack of a better description, might not have been the best suited for that position. The NFL kind of took the word of the officials background more than they should or really could in that short period of time. And when the officials went to the training initially, they did not keep everyone that attended.

Peace

Jeff- did they submit any video of their work to the NFL during the hiring process? I can't imagine many or any were ever scouted at that level.

I saw some rust on Mike Carey's crew at the St. Louis game today while I was in attendance...


Several dropped balls during tossing them to set for play.
Carey pointed the wrong way on penalties twice.
I thought there was two DPI calls that were missed (one for STL and one for SEA).
The umpire fell backing out for a punt formation.

Just a little rusty from what I saw. Nothing that can't be worked out in a couple weeks though!

I do not think so, but then again many answered a "request" for officials to work these games. Some names were recommended by "scouts" that had some college experience that knew officials that might be willing to make that move. I do not know all the details, I just know guys in our area names were initially given to NFL people.

Peace

There were a number of gaffes over the first Sunday with the regulars that, had these calls been made by the replacements, the media would had renewed its feeding frenzy.

The biggest was the fumble by Sproles in the NO/GB game that could have victimized the Packers for the second straight week. It would have been interesting to hear the press conferences and read the tweets if GB hadn't come back to win that one.

Well, the mistakes were surely less.

Regarding GB, though, I watched that whole game - and wondered at BOTH of Green Bay's challenges. The first was as GB was driving in the 2nd. It was an incomplete pass - winning the challenge would have made it about 3rd and goal from the 5 or 6 rather than from the 12. So the reward was small - and the risk high, as it was rather clear to me it was incomplete. Whoever told him otherwise should be canned.

The second was early in the 3rd quarter, on a simple first down completion by New Orleans in the middle of the field. Yes - a successful challenge means NO has to punt, but still - medium reward, and high risk again, given it was their 2nd challenge and it looked to me to be obviously complete.

I honestly don't think Green Bay can ***** about the fumble given that they gave away their 2 challenges for nothing. Coaches forget these are limited and challenge stupid crap like these two plays. Save them for IMPORTANT challenges, and for goodness sake, get someone in your booth that has a clue and will tell you when a challenge is likely to be upheld.

I do think there was a bit of a double standard regarding the replacement officials. Everything they did wrong, they were crucified. In the games yesterday, the mistakes (real or perceived) of the "original" refs were pointed out and let go.

I do think there was a big difference in adminstration of a game, but the calls, at least from what I saw yesterday weren't much different.

Don't get me wrong, NOT critizing, just saying the reporting was different.

I think the first challenge was a bad challenge without a doubt. The second one not so bad, I would predict 75% of the time they would win that challenge, but not yesterday.

But regardless, when a ball carrier is standing up and fumbles and you rule down by contact, that is not a good call. Even if you accept the premise that GB f'd up on using their challenges, doesn't mean it wan't a bad call. Just as a team shouldn't blame an official for their mistake, an official shouldn't blame a team for his. ( I suspect the officials involved would take responsibility)

Also even if they had a reviewchallenge left, it would have been ruled a fumble, with no clear video evidence of recovery and NO would have kept the ball. So GB would have lost out either way.

It's a honeymoon. Should be over after tonight.

Of course that is true. But also keep in mind the mistakes that were made this weekend, we common things that happen. I think the fumble in the GB-Saints game was probably more produced by being off for some time and probably not working games and repetition. Other than that based on what I saw, they did not make basic mistakes that the replacements made. It was obvious that the officials knew how to enforce penalties and difficult situations better. That was to be expected. But I totally agree that the complaining and ranting did not take place out of mostly perception. That still does not mean that some of that complaining was not warranted or brought on by the replacements and their many mistakes. You cannot blame the media because you spot the ball totally wrong or give a TB on the 5 yard line. Even in HS games those mistakes would have been glaring.

Peace

Green Bay was ahead when that happened so they would've had to have screwed up and given up the lead.

You're right and it was not an insignificant difference. It was quite noticeable, especially in the 49er / Jets game. The regulars were back and you could tell because some of the things they caught the 49ers on would've probably been passed on the previous weeks.

Besides the actual administration of the game (which was an easily discernible difference between the two groups), the biggest difference I saw was stuff involving the passing game and the WRs vs. DBs and I think that was the area where replacements had most of their issues. From most of the games I saw yesterday, the regulars were head and shoulders more consistent in this area. That's not to say there were a few head scratchers even with the regular officials.

This is the most subjective call in the game anyway and most scrutinized and misunderstood. So I am not at all surprised that some calls would be for debate, because they are up for debate normally. But the calls I saw were mostly there and TV often does not show many angles to give the bigger picture because they are so concerned with spot shadowing two players. Remember the officials see actually a bigger picture than most TV shows and that is why often those plays might not look as good to everyone.

Peace