The Glade 4.0

Redskins cornerback DeAngelo Hall, in his ninth NFL season, tried to defuse the situation momentarily Monday by jokingly offering to throw a stack of cash on the table to help bring back the regular officials, even though he isn't up to speed on the difference between defined contribution and defined benefits retirement plans.
"I don't know what they're arguing about, but I've got a couple mil, so let's try to make it work," Hall said. "I'm sure this locker room could party up some cash and try to help the cause out."
He was kidding about the money, but not about the scathing critique that followed.
"I have never been a part of anything like that before," he said. "I've played a lot of football in my years, and I've never been a part of a game that was that chippy. Just so many extracurricular things going on after the play. It's like, â??Come on, man, you can get somebody hurt out here.'"

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/nfl/stor ... 57797776/1

Let's get the real zebras back on the field. Jesus christ Goodell, how much money is involved here? Pay the goddamn refs.

I'm not advocating appeasing unions (I rather despise them), but a million dollars is chump change in the NFL these days.

They could scrape up a million dollars cleaning the change out of the bottom of the players lockers...

I recall reading something about the NFL wanting them to reduce their hours so they are not considered full-time, and thus not required to receive benefits.

I have been very impressed by the consideration players have shown the referees. They frequently have suggested what the proper call might be. Extending sportsmanship from player to player interaction to include the referees is welcome.

One thing people need to remember. The regular ref's aren't exactly perfect. Any Seahawk (or maybe Steelers fan) knows this...

I think there is a huge microscope on these guys, and every time something bad happens, it escalates and gets blown out of proportion.

I think they would be fine if people would just let them do their jobs...

Sadly, that's not going to happen...

Yeah, I agree. People act like the baseline was zero mistakes before the replacement guys took over. Have to accept the fact that all these replacement guys have never reffed at this level. There is a learning curve.

I do miss Ed Hochuli flexing and taking 20 minutes to explain a holding call.

This. And Mike Carey as well. Him and Hochules are my fav. refs.

Agree. I shouldn't be surprised though. Both are are the highest rated officials in the NFL(the wiki on Hochuli is awesome).

"There was no foul on the play. It was not a hold. The defender was just overpowered."

In comic strips the person on the left always speaks first. - George Carlin

Through two weeks of action, the NFL's replacement officials have caused an uproar. Quarterback Joe Flacco of the Baltimore Ravens said the refs are "affecting the integrity of the game," which is actually among the nicest things said about the group in the last few days.


Think NFL's replacement referees have messed up big time? Think again. WSJ's Kevin Clark has the numbers to prove they're doing about as good a job as the referees currently in contract dispute with the NFL. (Photo: Associated Press)

The labor dispute centers on a pension plan and salaries—and though there hasn't been any discussion, the referees union sent a letter to the NFL pushing a compromise on the pension on Tuesday. Still, a great divide remains and it looks like the league, its players and its fans must deal with the world of replacement refs. The consensus is that they take too long to make decisions and when they do, they are wrong. But through two weeks, the numbers actually suggest things aren't as bad as they seem.

The Sports Retort


REPLAYS
NFL coaches have thrown 29 challenge flags this season—that's on pace to be an 11% increase from last season. While it may seem like this would give referees a very public chance to be exposed, that hasn't been the case. Only 31% of those calls have been overturned, which is down from 52% last season and 42% in 2010. The challenge call sends the play to an upstairs booth, where it's reviewed by an official who isn't a replacement.

To be sure, there are some changes this year that could affect replays. Starting this season, there's an automatic replay for touchdowns and turnovers, meaning coaches can use challenges more freely on other aspects of the game.

THEY ARE SLOW
A common image in the last two weeks has been a group of referees huddled together having a conversation while mayhem surrounds them. Their indecision has contributed to games lasting six minutes longer, up to three hours and 13 minutes. As a whole, it's not an apocalyptic number, but the problem is with individual penalties. According to WSJ analysis of 10 games from last week and 10 from Week 2 of last season, which featured roughly 175 penalties, the average penalty call from the replacement refs took 31.3 seconds from the time the whistle was blown until the explanation of the penalty was finished. That's eight seconds more than the time used on average by the regular referees.

Enlarge Image

European Pressphoto Agency
Denver Broncos head coach John Fox arguing a call with replacement NFL referees on Monday.

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Quiz: So You Think You Can Be an NFL Ref?
The problem was the seven penalties in our sample that kept the replacements in discussion for more than one minute, including one roughing the passer call in the Dallas-Seattle game that took 90 seconds to sort out. In last year's sampling of games, only one penalty featured a conference longer than a minute.

FLAG FREQUENCY
In the past two weeks, 470 penalties were called—that's a difference of 11 penalties from the same span last season. That's not the only consistency. Common penalties like delay of game, illegal block, offside and roughing the passer were nearly identical to their 2011 numbers, according to Stats LLC. There hasn't been much of a home-field bias, either. In 2011, 44.5% of penalties through two weeks were called on the home team. That number rose to just 45.1% this season.


THEY PUNISH…
Defensive backs. Fifty pass interference calls were made through two weeks this year. That's up 28% from last season. Holding penalties were called 121 times, up from 107 a year ago. Perhaps most startling, they've called 21 personal fouls, up from four last season. Those fouls are general misbehavior penalties and don't include infractions like roughing the passer or unnecessary roughness.

THEY IGNORE…
Procedural penalties. Illegal shift (2011: 6, 2012: 0) and illegal player downfield (2011: 7, 2012: 1) seem to have been overlooked by the officials. Illegal use of the hands is down from eight last year to four this season.

THEY AREN'T WINNING STYLE POINTS
In the Philadelphia Eagles' win over the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, Ravens' receiver Jacoby Jones's scored what looked to be a dramatic fourth quarter touchdown. When he came down with the ball, no flag was visible. The call eventually was offensive pass interference—but it was never signaled to the players. Flacco said the referee threw a blue beanie instead of a flag.

You'd think that was the low point, but it's not. On Tuesday, Eagles running back LeSean McCoy claimed in a radio interview that a referee mentioned he needed McCoy to do well for the sake of his fantasy football team. A league spokesman said officials are not allowed to play fantasy football and that the league is investigating.

The NFL also removed a referee from Sunday's Saints-Panthers game due to pictures a referee posted on Facebook showing him as a…massive Saints fan. (The referee will no longer serve as an onfield official.) In another incident, in Monday's Atlanta-Denver game, the referees gave Denver 11 yards on a defensive holding penalty, which by NFL rules is worth five yards. The Broncos scored on the drive.

—Chris Herring and Michael Salfino contributed to this article