Yeah I’m still mad.
The NFL literally has a problem that is black-and-white and staring right at them and they won’t do anything about it. The league’s referees and their bad calls are becoming a joke that is increasingly played on unsuspecting teams on a weekly basis. Moreover, the NFL fan base isn’t shocked anymore when they are on the bad end of an inept call. It’s as if you have to be lucky to not be screwed over by the NFL’s referees. The latest victim – the New Orleans Saints.
NFL referees – that cold, evil specter that hangs, like a pallor, over the stadiums of the land, and whose death grip of ineptitude descended upon the Superdome and usurped any semblance of normalcy from a great game left the men in Black and Gold, and the city that loves them, baffled as to what happened and questioning their own vision.
Forget the fact that it looks like, as pointed out by The Advocate’s Nick Underhill, that Denver’s Jared Crick grabbed the inside of Saints long snapper Justin Drescher’s helmet, which is a facemask penalty. Forget that in the NFL it’s evidently okay to push the long snapper into the ground and forget that allowing defensive players to leap the center will eventually shatter a kicker’s leg. Forget all that. Let’s just focus on what the city of New Orleans and eventually the rest of the dwindling fan base of the NFL saw right after that.
He stepped out.
Will Parks stepped out of bounds. Parks took the ball on a perfect bounce and took off down the sidelines on his way to give the Broncos a two-point lead. Then, even though no one touched him, Parks stepped out of bounds. End of play. Saints come out and kickoff and hopefully the defense, who played a solid game, holds the Broncos offense and forces overtime. Right? Wrong.
How could anyone miss that call? There is nothing going on at this point of the play except for players running. No one is blocking and there are no collisions taking place. People are just running. So, the referee has one job at this point. That is to watch the man with the ball and make sure he doesn’t run out of bounds.
It’s that simple.
And the referee simply missed it. He totally and completely failed at the one job he had at the most critical point of the game. I assume the referee (actually the head linesman), instead of doing his job, was at best singing, “Glory Days” and thinking of his awesome high school football team or, and seemingly more likely thinking, “Weeeeee. Look at me! I’m running along with real football players. I bet I’m totally on TV right now. I’m definitely calling mom after this guy scores.”
Yeah, I’m still mad. I hope someone is digging into the backgrounds of these referees and looking for connections to gambling or legal gambling, a.k.a. fantasy sports. Okay, I don’t think the referees are intentionally throwing games but for some reason they seem more apt to be overwhelmed by the game and make bone-headed mistakes. The mounting trash heap of bad calls that are directly impacting games in major ways is disturbing. You know, when the chips are down.
Last year it was an entire crew missing 18 seconds running off the clock in a Chargers-Steelers match. Then it was a referee missing the Seahawks intentionally batting a football out of the end zone to beat the Lions. This year, so far, it’s been Richard Sherman taking out the Bills kicker at the end of the half and not being penalized for roughing the kicker, which set off yet another referee-induced Keystone Cops scenario that left the football world shaking their head at the NFL’s latest blunder. You want more? You probably won’t mind this one, but what about Richard Sherman not getting called for pass interference after tackling Julio Jones to end the Seahawks-Falcons game? The non-call would have put the Falcons in position for a game-winning field goal. Now, I’m starting to wonder if that was actually Richard Sherman wearing a Broncos jersey and stepping out of bounds.
But in all honesty, I’ve re-watched the replay over and over and will say that THE GUY STEPPED OUT OF BOUNDS.
Someone has to say (yell) it because the NFL has all of the coaches, players and TV announcers toeing an imaginary line. You know, all of that “Defend the shield” garbage. That’s why Sean Payton — the most screwed-over coach in NFL history — won’t say anything in a press conference that’s out of line with company policy. It’s always just another “Can’t Do Anything Now and We’ll Get ‘Em Next Week" speech.
The NFL doesn’t care what you think. The NFL is just a product with employees who drink the Kool-Aid that makes them rich and could care less about the outcome. The NFL is a soft drink. The NFL is an old pair of shoes.
Thank god it’s a short week. I guess.
And like a fine wine with a steak dinner, every game should be accompanied by a beverage and song.
Beer Pairing: Anheuser-Busch “Budweiser”
Playlist Recommendation: Public Enemy – “Burn Hollywood Burn”
Around The Way
I was going to put the New Orleans Pelicans front office on blast but that will have to wait. Just note – Anthony Davis is a god and the front office is ruining his time here.
But anyway, I want to end on a positive note and give a shout out to the Xavier Women’s Volleyball team as they were named as a host school in the first round of the NAIA Volleyball Championships after winning their sixth straight GCAC Volleyball Championship. The Gold Nuggets will take on the University of Saint Francis this Saturday with the winner advancing to Sioux City, Iowa to begin tournament pool play.