Mark my words. The NFL as we know it today will not exist in 20 years or less. The game has gotten too expensive to maintain and the violence on the field is getting out of hand. Add in debacles like last night and fans will start tuning out in droves. It hasn’t happened yet but when it does the NFL will be done.
The cost of maintaining these elaborate stadiums and paying outrageous player salaries has owners scraping for every possible revenue stream and also unwilling to pay the referees, who right now have the owners by the balls and are beginning to squeeze. Seeing how bad the replacement officials are should have the real refs raising their demands every day. The longer this goes on the more credibility the almighty shield will have lost, and it is already a disgrace.
The call that stole the game from the Packers last night was the most egregious error to date and the first to directly affect the outcome of a game, but in all three weeks there were major blown calls that did indeed affect the outcome of the games, just not on the last play. I could detail some of those but that has been done ad nauseam.
The amazing thing about last night’s call is that everyone in the league, from players to coaches, to fans outside of Washington State, agree that the refs blew the call. M.D. Jennings caught the ball and the game was over. Even the NFL in it’s spin-doctored statement didn’t say the call on the field was correct, it just said there should have been pass interference called. You think? Golden Tate almost broke Sam Shields neck on the play. Just think how that would have looked for the replacement refs – a dead guy on the field.
I would call them zebras but that would be an insult to real zebras, and I am an animal lover so I will refrain. These idiots refereeing these games give new meaning to word incompetent. It is beyond belief that the NFL would run these clowns out there. Even if the real refs came back for this weekend the season will be forever tainted because of the comedy of errors we’ve seen the first three weeks. And now the cherry on top is some bozo running from the five yard line to make a call at back of the endzone when he can’t even see the ball. Simply incredible.
The idiots in stripes overshadowed what was another shaky performance by the Packers’ offense and another good performance by the Packers’ defense. Either head coach Mike McCarthy is the most arrogant S.O.B west of New England or maybe he just isn’t who we thought he was. He either won’t adjust his offense or he is unable to adjust his offense. It is baffling.
Defensive coordinator Dom Capers was able to take a bunch of new, young players and turn around the leagues worst defense and currently has them ranked third in the NFL. McCarthy needs to step his game up or the hole the Packers have found themselves in will only get deeper. If the Packers can’t move the ball against the New Orleans Saints next Sunday they can pretty much start planning offseason activities that don’t involve the playoffs.
We will find out Sunday how resilient this year’s Packers are. A win and they stay in the hunt, a loss and it’s see ya, wouldn’t wanna be ya.