“The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.”
Ernest Hemingway
Ask any player on the Green Bay Packers roster, or any player on a National Football League roster, if they trust the so-called ‘replacement refs’ and I bet you’ll get a resounding no. What was a laughable situation in the beginning has turned into an all out embarrassment for the once proud brand that was is the NFL.
Owners, coaches and players alike tried to place trust in these over-matched officials but any shred of trust that they might have had evaporated in a single, nationally televised moment. When it was incorrectly determined that a Seattle Seahawks wide receiver caught a game-winning touchdown in the waning seconds of NFL’s marque weekly event (Monday Night Football), though it was evident that he did not, it became clear that these new refs and the NFL higher-ups that allow them to call the games have lost any hope of earning trust; now or ever.
Interception yes, touchdown no.
Credibility has been fully shredded and it has been replaced by a permanent sense of doubt and uncertainty that are here to stay. Until these refs are gone, and the real refs are finally paid, there simply is no credibility. Period.
Players are so angry that they have even offered to take money out of their own pockets in order to stop this nonsense. No said it better than TJ Lang, a Seahawks lineman, when he went to Twitter this tweet:
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TJ Lang Fuck it NFL.. Fine me and use the money to pay the regular refs.
TJ LangTJ is not the only angry one; everyone from Brett Favre to Seth Myers has taken to Twitter to express their thoughts on this particular, outrageous call that is likely to shift the NFL playoff landscape by season’s end.
The anger is as justifiable as it is rampant but so is the helplessness of everyone save for the greedy greedy greedy Roger Goodell. If money is the objective, he wins. If a good product is the objective, and it should be, he is failing. The NFL brand has been taking hits on the ref issue all season but the incorrect Seahawks-Packers one has the feel of a image-destroyer.
As the old saying goes, fool me once, shame on me, fool me with multitudes of in-game penalties, shame on me still but fool me about who actually wins a game? Shame shame shame on you NFL!
