Vikings Message Board.Com

Eli wrote: It doesn't imply that at all.

Of course it does. I didn't say they were the best officials possible. I said they're the best. If it's a joke to make that claim, then the implication is that better football officials exist... now. What you're talking about are hypothetical officials. Sure, if the pool of candidates was larger and the NFL was able to find enough to occupy full-time officials for 12 months, they could probably raise the overall quality of the officiating but right now, the only officials out there are part-time and if I'm not mistaken, that's true at all levels of the sport.

In other words, unless you can point to another league or level of football with better officiating, the NFL officials are the best at what they do. The possibility that they could be better or could be replaced by someone better if the league employed full-time officials and expanded their training program is a separate issue.

Anyway, the larger point here is that the replacements the NFL has chosen are significantly less experienced than the usual crew of NFL officials and there's likely to be a drop in the quality of the officiating that could impact games. Since people are clearly already aggravated and dissatisfied with NFL officiating, I think going with less accomplished, experienced crews is probably a big step in the wrong direction, especially when the league could solve the problem quite easily.

dead_poet wrote:Big deal or not?

Considering they couldn't even get the coin toss right, I'm a little worried.

I honestly didn't think the regular refs were very good to be honest.. so I'm not too worried about it

I will say that if we find out that the normal refs are the "best" at what they do, then we have some biiiiig problems...

How Bad Were Replacement Refs Last Night? Let’s Examine The Video Evidence.

http://deadspin.com/5933558/how-bad-wer ... socialflow

dead_poet wrote:How Bad Were Replacement Refs Last Night? Let’s Examine The Video Evidence.

http://deadspin.com/5933558/how-bad-wer ... socialflow

OMFG... that Bills game with the touchback. That just helped the real refs out tons. If that was a regular season game, I woul dbe livid. What a disgusting call.
The real refs are better, although I still think they need MAJOR improvements in their games.

More problems.

Robbie Gould: Replacement refs 'clueless'

In addition, Titans coach Mike Munchak said after the game that there had been "some confusion" on timeouts before halftime. According to my AFC South colleague Paul Kuharsky, Titans defensive coordinator Jerry Gray walked away from an argument with replacement officials and called them "The Three Stooges" on the field.

http://espn.go.com/blog/nfcnorth/post/_ ... s-clueless

This could end up being a nightmare if the real refs don't get on the field soon. The guys they have now must be REALLY bad if it is making the real refs look good...

PurpleMustReign wrote:This could end up being a nightmare if the real refs don't get on the field soon. The guys they have now must be REALLY bad if it is making the real refs look good...

Even though we all get aggravated with them at times, most of the regular NFL officials really are good. Like anybody, they have bad days but they know the rules and more often than not, they do a good job. We get to watch games at home with the benefit of slow motion instant replays but they have to make the calls in real time, at field level, and there are 7 of them watching 22 players at a time. It's inevitable that they will miss a few calls or get a few wrong but when you consider how many plays are in each game and how many they get right vs. how many they get wrong, most of the time they do a good job.

The NFL needs to get this situation resolved or as you said, it could be a nightmare. During the preseason, it's much easier for fans, coaches and players to cut the replacements a little slack but when the inexperience of the replacement officials starts impacting regular season games, things could get ugly in a hurry.

Mothman wrote:Even though we all get aggravated with them at times, most of the regular NFL officials really are good. Like anybody, they have bad days but they know the rules and more often than not, they do a good job.

I agree but the sense I get is the NFL will not cave until officials agree to the defined contribution 401K rather than the defined benefit pension they have now. And officials are unlikely to cave because they have other jobs. Stalemate. Everybody loses.

CalVike wrote: I agree but the sense I get is the NFL will not cave until officials agree to the defined contribution 401K rather than the defined benefit pension they have now. And officials are unlikely to cave because they have other jobs. Stalemate. Everybody loses.

It's looking that way...

Holy lord - that Buffalo touchback call was a thing of WTF?!?!?!?!

Memo sent from league office today to all NFL teams: replacement refs will start regular season. More to come.

RT by Adam Schefter

dead_poet wrote:
RT by Adam Schefter

Well this sucks.

Juice wrote: Well this sucks.

Yes, it does! I won't be surprised if it costs a team a win. I just hope the Vikings won't be that team.