NFL Replacement Referees--Time to Replace the Replacements After Outcome of Packers-Seahawks Game

From missed calls to ridiculous penalties, replacement officials have been on the hot seat for the first three weeks of the 2012 NFL season and one thing is certainly clear–these refs should not be officiating at this level. With the Seattle Seahawks and Green Bay Packers wrapping up a Week 3 full of upsets, we can finally say that the replacement officials blew a call that had an impact on the end of a football game.

On the final play of the game, Seahawks quarterback Russel Wilson completed a 24-yard hail mary pass to Golden Tate as time expired to give Seattle a 13-12 lead. However, when looking at the replay, it’s clear that Tate pushed off Sam Shields to get open before hauling in the pass–but nothing was ever called by the officials despite how obvious it was.

What’s even worse–Tate didn’t even appear to catch the ball as as M.D. Jennings appeared to have full control with the football against his chest when he hit the ground during the controversial play.

The fact that there were two officials standing next to Tate and the rest of the players when the play happened while one ruled it a touchdown catch and the other ruled it an interception is just one of many examples from the past three weeks when it comes to how terrible these replacement officials have been. It was only a matter of time before these refs influenced the outcome of a game and now–this is going to be one of the most controversial stories for the rest of the season considering the Packers were robbed and should be 2-1 heading into Week 4.

So when is the NFL finally going to take a stand and do something about this mess with these replacement officials? They’re obviously not going to work as hard to reach a new deal with the old officials considering fans are still going to attend games and players are still going to play in games–but this has become flat-out ridiculous.

The NFL has sent warnings out to teams about criticizing these officials, but what do they expect? Clearly, these replacement officials are far from qualified to be in the big leagues and Monday’s game is the perfect example as to how out of hand this situation has become.

Enough is enough–it’s time to replace the replacement officials that are ruining the 2012 season for everyone.

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