Welcome back! Yes, every football fan's dream has come true! The REAL referees are BACK! After a three-week back and forth debacle over money, the National Football League and their referees have come to an agreement in the realm of an eight-year deal. Its music to many peoples ears, but not to everyone.
The replacement refs are now facing what's next in their careers. Do they go back to Division-three college football? That's the question. Fans never gave the replacements any chance to become good. From the start, fans would boo these refs. They don't realize that these refs have not officiated a game that has name-brand teams. The games that they would call are of teams that if you don't live in that state, you wouldn't know where the college was. For example, do you know where Montclair State University is? Unless you live in or close to New Jersey, chances are, you never heard of the school.
The only sport in college that you can find these schools playing with big name schools like UCONN, Rutgers, Duke, etc is basketball. Why, its because of "March Madness." March Madness gives small schools like Liberty or Davidson the opportunity to shine.
Back to the "real" refs coming back. Like the saying says, "All good things must come to an end." The honeymoon is over, once the game starts. It's funny how everyone wanted them to come back, but when an official makes a call against the home team, the fans boo the refs for the rest of the game. This past weekend there were a few controversial calls made by the returning officials. Only one call was a game changer call. That call came in the New York Giants-Philadelphia Eagles game on September 30.
Giants wide receiver, Ramses Barden was being covered by Eagles cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha. The ball was on the Eagles' 26-yard line when quarterback Eli Manning took the snap from the center and launched a pass to Barden near the goal line. Asomugha who was covering Barden was trying to get the ball at the same time Barden was and Barden pushed the defender down. That resulted in a pass interference call.
Because of Barden's idiotic moves, the Giants were penalized 10 yards. You see, the game was on the line for the Giants. There was 25 seconds left in the game and the Giants were down 19-17, all they needed was a field goal to win. After the pass interference call, the Giants failed to convert the first down. So it was up to kicker Lawrence Tynes; he had to kick a 54-yard field goal for the win.
As Tynes was about to kick the football, Eagles head coach, Andy Reid called a timeout. Teams like to call timeouts right before a game-changing play. This was intended to "ice" the kicker and make him think of how he is going to make a good kick. Tynes kicked the ball even with the timeout being established and the ball went wide. So, Tynes had another opportunity to make a good kick, what happened? Tynes then made another kick and it was right down the middle, but the kick was two-yards short. The Giants were so close of winning the game.
Even though the normal referees are back, everything is not perfect. There will always be mistakes being made because that is part of the game. No one is perfect, its like life; you make one mistake fine, but if you keep on making mistakes, then something needs to be done. Hence why Commissioner Roger Goodell did everything he could to get his referees back. He even admitted that he made a mistake and the fans did not deserve it. The fans didn't deserve it, but the replacement refs did the best they could do.
Thankfully Goodell and the regular refs came to an agreement because if it didn't happen, I could see teams, players and fans boycotting the league. What would happen if the players boycotted the league? Would Goodell have to get replacement players, steal them from the Indoor Football League or Canadian Football League? If that were to happen, then fans would complain about the "new" players because they don't know the rules.
That brings me to my next post. It blends in with my next topic: the NHL lockout. Will the lockout ever end? What will happen with the players? Tune in and find out my thoughts on the issue. Until then!
Sporty Nikki
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