Mike From Woburn: For NFL Officiating, Utter Failure Has Become The Norm
By Mike From Woburn, 98.5 The Sports Hub Contributor
BOSTON (CBS) -- The NFL's terrible officiating problem has now become a pandemic of incompetence, and a cure is nowhere in sight. And just 24 hours after NFL commissioner Roger Goodell claimed the league's refs "do an extraordinary job," they proceeded to extraordinarily job yet another team out of a win.
Last night, it was the Detroit Lions' turn to get royally porked.
With six seconds left and not close to field goal or even Hail Mary range, the Green Bay Packers attempted one of those multiple lateral desperation plays looking for some kind of miracle. Unfortunately for the Lions, the Pack got an intervention of the not-so-divine variety. In an attempt to keep the ball alive, the Lions were called for a incredibly dubious 15-yard facemasking penalty on Packers QB Aaron Rodgers, who had become a runner after taking a less-than-advisable lateral. So a game that should have been over wasn't, and the Packers got an extra 15 yards and an untimed down, so attempting a Hail Mary was a realistic option.
A few seconds later, a combination of Aaron Rodgers' hurling a low-orbit satellite into the end zone and Lions head coach/professional sock puppet Jim Caldwell's incompetence led to a literally uncovered Richard Rodgers coming down with the improbable 61-yard TD for the win.
OK, let's get this disclaimer out of the way first: Jim Caldwell is a terrible coach and based on facial expressions and movement, might not actually be alive. I am still convinced he's some sort of animatronic drone that will simply shut down when game situations move beyond his basic 8-bit programming. This is probably why he actually had two defenders wide on the sidelines playing some sort of run contingency and didn't have massive Lions wideout Calvin Johnson playing center field in the end zone. This led to it being a 6-on-5 in the end zone with no one to front Richard Rodgers. Coaching Incompetence 101 cost the Lions dearly on this last play.
But it was a play that should have never happened.
The facemasking foul on Aaron Rodgers was a terrible call. During the game's penultimate play, eventual hero Richard Rodgers hurled a reverse lateral across the field and 15 yards backward to an isolated Aaron Rodgers. The Packers QB was quickly tackled by two Lions, but in the process, Lions defensive end Devin Taylor's thumb briefly brushed Rodgers' facemask as he was going down. Rodgers turning his head to avoid the hand also added to the illusion that a foul had taken place, and as a result, a yellow flag fell.
First of all, it wasn't a facemask. I don't care how it looked on the play. It's not a foul. Look up the rule: "No player shall grasp and control, twist, turn, push, or pull the facemask of an opponent in any direction." There was never a millisecond where Taylor grabs Rodgers' facemask. His thumb grazes it. That's it.
And guess what? It's perfectly legal to do.
That's because when Aaron Rodgers took the moronic lateral, he ceased to be a quarterback and became a runner and thus should have no longer been protected like a green and gold Spotted Owl. Simply touching anywhere on his head is no longer an automatic roughing the passer call. The defense isn't allowed to do much in today's NFL, but they can still almost murder runners. And for throwing an ill-advised lateral to an exposed QB, the Packers almost deserved for Rodgers to get smeared.
As it is, Rodgers looked like a mess even though he was barely touched. His helmet was askew after the play, not because he was egregiously mangled, but because he uses one of those old two point chin straps that excels at giving adolescent boys a chin of socially crippling acne in under a quarter but sucks at keeping a player's helmet on. Apparently the single-bar Joe Theismann lid rocked in the '80s or a Gretzky Jofa brain bucket aren't allowable, or I presume Rodgers would be rocking one of those as well. But how Rodgers looked after a play should have absolutely no bearing on whether a foul occurred.
So neither the play itself, the urge to protect a quarterback, or the optics of the play should have resulted in that call being made. But it was.
With a controversially bungled call prominently featured in a prime-time game, you knew that already-embattled NFL head of officiating Dean Blandino would have to address it.
And just like the officials he manages, he blew it too. After the game Blandino tweeted the following:
"Hand up to the mask, quick grab with finger and head gets turned. At full speed official is going to make that call almost every time."
So not only does Blandino get it wrong, (there was never ever a grab), but he then basically absolves his officials because it's too much to expect his officials to accurately figure out what a facemask is at full speed? Really? Against Buffalo, Blandino's cronies robbed the Bills of a chance to run a Hail Mary by applying a college football rule in an NFL game, and weeks later the Packers get an extra play they never should have had because at any speed, his crews blow. Failure is now just business as usual for the NFL vice president of officiating.
So if Blandino won't take responsibility for his employees' repeated failures and Roger Goodell is fine with the current status quo of weekly debacles, how is the officiating ever going to improve? Last year's playoffs were full of controversy and we still don't know what a catch is. Now this year's postseason is just around the corner and the game is apparently too fast for the refs to get basic calls right.
Thank god they have offensive pass interference down pat.
Mike From Woburn, formerly known as Mike From Attleboro, is a regular caller to the Felger & Massarotti Show. You can find him on Twitter @MikeFromATown.
