Week three of the NFL season ended tonight in one of the most bizarre ways an NFL game has ended in years.
The Green Bay Packers (1-1) led the Seattle Seahawks (1-1) 12-7 with 8 seconds on the clock. Seattle had the ball at the Packers’ 24, 4th down, with no timeouts.
Seahawks QB Russell Wilson took the snap, scrambled to his left and fired off a Hail Mary pass into the corner of the end zone. Seattle WR Golden Tate clearly pushes off on GB corner Sam Shields and goes up for the jump ball. But Packers safety M.D. Jennings gets there first, grabs the ball and brings it to his chest. Tate gets an arm in and a hand on the ball, and both go to the ground. Tate appears to have his other hand on the ball from Jennings’ other side. It looks like an interception, and therefore a Green Bay win.
Here’s where it gets weird. Two officials converge on the play, one from the goal line and the other from the end line behind the play. The goal line ref signals touchdown, about a half second before the end line ref signals to stop the clock, which in that scenario is usually followed by a touchback signal due to an interception in the end zone. The officials don’t agree on which player had possession of the ball. That moment looked like this.
Because the goal line ref signaled first, the play was treated as a touchdown, handing Seattle the win, 13-12. But all scoring plays are reviewed by video now in the NFL, so the officials had the chance to get the call corrected. Or so it would seem. The head ref takes a look at the play, and quickly comes back out to rule that the touchdown stands. By rule, officials cannot review possession of the ball on a simultaneous catch, which was how the goal line ref ruled the play a Seattle touchdown. So the play stood, and the clock read 0:00.
Game over, right? Not exactly.
Both teams had cleared the field and headed to their locker rooms. But by rule, regulation time cannot end on a touchdown without an extra point try. Both teams had run off the field after the review confirming the touchdown call had handed Seattle the lead. They had to come back onto the field and go through the motions of the extra point. ESPN’s cameras captured GB’s Shields looking through a box of helmets to find one that fit him so he could stand around during the extra point play. I write “stand around,” because that’s all the Packers players did during that final play — they stood around in evident protest after the snap, not even bothering to try to block the kick. The elapsed time between the touchdown play and the extra point was about ten minutes.
The kick was good, final score Seattle 14-Green Bay 12. Seattle improved to 2-1 while the Packers fell to 1-2.
ESPN’s booth commentators, John Gruden and Mike Tirico, tore into the NFL for allowing the league’s lock-out of the league’s officials to get to the point where replacement officials literally changed the outcome of a game. On the Seahawks’ possession prior to the touchdown, the officials had called pass interference on Shields, when replays showed that the Seattle WR had been the guilty party. That call extended Seattle’s drive. The call on the last play changed the score decisively.
The wild ending to the Monday Night Football clash capped a week in which one replacement ref almost cost the Dallas Cowboys their game against Tampa Bay by tossing his hat into the path of Cowboys WR Kevin Ogletree as he got open in the end zone, causing Ogletree to slip and miss the pass from QB Tony Romo.
The replacement refs have become a running joke during the first three weeks of the season, getting calls wrong, misidentifying player numbers and adding time length to games while they figure out what calls to make. But the ending of the Packers-Seahawks game has to get the NFL’s attention. The best run sports league in the US had a very big mess on its hands.
no worse than john roberts on obamacare.
I’m a Seattle Seahawks fan and even I thought Green Bay would come out of that with a win. There is nothing worse than a tainted win – hey Steelers – how about that (tainted) Super Bowl win over the Seahawks?
WOW!
Maybe it was Karma.
Yeah, the refs made the Seahawk receivers drop all those passes.
You’d have thought that during a replay of that last play they would’ve caught Tate clearly, big as daylight, pushing a GB defender to the ground right before the ball showed up…..should have been pass interference, end of game. Of course earlier in Seattle’s drive, it should have been offensive pass interference. End of their drive end of game. My son was so mad he said to let him know when the “replacements” are gone so he can start watching football again.
Madland,
It doesn’t matter whether they saw pass interference on the replay. Pass interference isn’t reviewable and they do not throw any penalty flag because of the results of a replay review. That’s why you’ve never seen a coach throw a challenge flag over a consequential PI call.
As I understand it, possession is not reviewable and since first ref signaled touchdown, possession is established which always goes to the receiver. You also can call a penalty from the replay booth. The blame lies purely with the first responder refs and after that, the die was cast.
Homecooking? Refs stunk, will not watch another game till the real refs are back…
GB indeed got jobbed, pity their next opponents.
Simultaneous possession calls usually go to the offense. It’s just the way it is. The replay ref couldn’t find enough evidence to overturn. Not sure the regular refs would have done any better.
Actually, the NFL rulebook has examples illustrating this type of play and it would have been an interception under that rule.
Rule 8, Article 3, Item 5
http://static.nfl.com/static/content/public/image/rulebook/pdfs/11_2012_ForwardPass_BackPass_Fumble.pdf
Right That’s why we teach DBs to knock the ball down on hail marys. But hey, its easier to blame the refs for a poorly executed game by GB.
Hey, the replacement refs more closely mirror “American diversity” so what’s the beef? You have replaced qualified, very carefully groomed professionals with affirmative action replacements so that the game can continue. Who’s to complain about the results? You got what you demand everyone else does in business and the military where, “Everyone’s the same, regardless of actual qualifications or ability” and now even the announcers, as left-wing as their counterparts in newsmedia, complain about the “disservice” to the sport.
Awwwwwww.
Yet they demand a female firefighter pass a a physical test where they have to carry a lesser weight than a man. The military does the same.
The police officer test standard in Dayton, Ohio was lowered, as per demands by Eric Holder and 258 more people “passed” so that more blacks could gain entrance to the career field.
I’m glad to see it in action here on the football field where it illustrates how failure to uphold standards provides ridiculous results. Ironic that the people who demand affirmative action are the loudest complainers of the results, too.
your comment is the best i have read.
AHA! You were listening to Rush Limbaugh yesterday.
Indeed I did! And, without trying to sound superior, he is often verbalizing my exact thoughts. As is the norm, I was thinking “Affirmative action, in-progress” as he was discussing it. During the games I had already had these thoughts.
Thus, when I tell people, “I don’t listen to Rush to be ‘told what to think’ as I’m already thinking it. It’s just nice to have the thoughts confirmed.”.
I believe many conservatives (millions) are already thinking the same things as I am, and Rush just verbalizes them to the listeners, thus affirming our position on things. Unlike the liberal media where they seem to require the daily sound-bite montage as to be told what to think (the ‘narrative of the day’), Rush simply confirms our thoughts already in motion.
His gift is to be able to quickly and succinctly assemble the thoughts and discuss them thus allowing everyone the opportunity to see the simplicity of it.
P Jay;
Ditto, my friend.
Rush always has a fresh, unique angle, and illiterates it with an unmatched incisiveness.
I try to catch every episode live, and I podcast the ones I miss.
Since all the advertisers came back, he needs to add another hour to make up for lost time. You’d think he’d have more freedom to complete his segments, without commercial interruptions.
But, that’s a characteristic of a successful business; You own it to start out, and it ends up owning you.
Our replacements? The Third World. As this century advances, so will this country’s legacy fall back. There’s PC’s woulda, coulda, shoulda, and there’s what works – which is reality’s game, and reality doesn’t care what should work or what you look like.
Good call! Amateurs running the government, amateurs running anything, same results, failure and confusion and unequal opportunities and results!
Bring back the UNIONIZED refs!
The NFL poobahs better get the labor dispute settled; this buffoonery is negatively impacting the NFL brand and, as the author states, changing the outcomes of games.
Dude, look into The Tuck Rule.
I think the officials have been doing a yeoman’s job this season.
Exactly right. If the regular refs got this kind of over-top-scrutiny on almost EVERY single one of their calls, do you think we would find mistakes?
How many hundreds (thousands) of games have the regular refs messed up? Why do you think we went to instant replay in the first place?
I had to watch the Sunday night game on mute cause Collinsworth would not stop whining about the refs.
The regular refs are being greedy with their demand for a defined benefit pension plan.
Also, the GB defensive back should have knocked the ball down instead of going for the interception to pad his stats.
Is it sad that I’m so cynical, my first thought was: “Some of these refs have to be union plants intended to force the NFL to end the strike with a sweetheart deal for the union”?
This wasn’t a case of simultaneous possession. Jennings caught the ball and the Seahawks, Golden Tate, reached his right hand around and got it near (or) on part of the ball.
The key part of the rule that applies lies in the fact that Jennings had initial possession. He made the catch with two hands.
But I expect the interim refs to make these kinds of half assed calls.
The real fault goes to the other Packer closest to Tate and Jennings. His job was to pull Tate away, while pulling Tate’s hand off the ball. Like your average football idiot, the Green Bay Player who was in a great position to do this wasn’t thinking. And don’t say the refs would have penalized him. The refs were ten yards away when Tate wasn’t trying to make it look like he had partial possession. They had already missed the pass interference call on the same play.
Plus, the Packers played a terrible game which should never have come down to this final play. They’re looking more like an Abe Gibron led Bears team every Sunday.
The player does not have possession of the ball until both feet land in the playing field. Jennings caught the ball with both feet in the air, Tate had his left hand under the ball at the same time that Jennings did in mid-air and had his right hand on the ball before Jennings feet touched the ground, thus the simultaneous reception/possession, which goes to the team with last possession of the ball, the Seahawks.
This is exactly right, although many refuse to see it objectively.
And by “see it objectively” you mean the way you do of course.
Refs just don’t call pushing off on the last play of a game like that. So to people bringing it up, that just doesn’t happen.
And the real problem is with the instant replay system – especially when these refs, it should be allowed to make any call, not just the limited uses it has.
You could get the best ref’s in the world … the game is still boring. All slow motion interspersed with a lot of standing around.
The Patriots / Ravens game on Sunday night was completely out of control with terrible calls from start to finish. The game ended with bad calls and a questionable field goal.
Time to make a deal. The NFL seriously damaging their product over a meaningless few dollars.
The best commentary on the NFL’s referee lockout was provided by the Ravens’ fans in Bawlmer that night.
hen 50,000 paying ticket holder Bawlmorons are chanting:
“Bull-SHIT!”
in unison so synchronized and loudly that the network microphones pick it up and broadcast it nationwide, you’ve got a PROBLEM.
And as the spouse of a Ravens fan,(Raving Lunatic), I can attest that the folks that habitually attend Ravens games do not practice that chant….but Sunday night, they sure sounded like they did!
Actually this event does not prove that the “real refs” need to come back. Instead it serves as a reminder and an object lesson. It reminds us that the best team does not win. No matter which set of refs are holding the whistles, the winning team is the one that the refs allow to win. The “replacement refs” are perhaps just a little less sophisticated about burying the game changing calls. Holding called, or not. Pass interference called, or not. Those are week in week out game changers. The refs have been changing games for years with their calls.
The object lesson is that the “rules” and “referees” pick the winners everywhere in life, not just football. Generalize this to the economy. The best company and the best ideas do not win. Winners depend on what the rules say, and how the “referees” call the game. Elections are about picking winners by writing new rules and picking new referees. Vote early vote often!
Harry has hit the proverbial nail on the proverbial head – how many times do we hear we have to “level the playing field” for some group or other; such leveling resulting in a large transfer of funds to the levelers themselves.
Hey Jennings, everyone can see when the ball hits the ground. KNOCK IT DOWN!
Good point. I thought the same thing.
Oilers/Steelers playoffs 1970′s. That’s all I have to say.
– Mary?
Wrong guys get the call? Hey, who let journalists become replacement refs?
Was that Andrew Sullivan (“President Obama: The Democrats’ Ronald Reagan) moonlighting as a replacement ref and making the touchdown call?
Who cares? I thought we discussed serious issues here at PJM?
Let’s see who are complaining about the refs: Packers, Patriots and Saints.
Hmm, all with losing records so far.
Three teams that have been getting every questionable call for many years.
These teams could be subject to a season of calls not breaking their way and they’d still have about 5 more seasons to go to ‘break even.’
So, you’re in favor of Affirmative Action as applied to professional sports refereeing,then?
The keyword here is “professional”…I buy a ticket to see an honestly called game, one that employs the best and most talented players, coaches…and referees competing in the game that is conducted at a level that shows the game at the top of its form.
Right now, the fans are PAYING for a cold Stella Artois, but are are GETTING a lukewarm Pabst Blue Ribbon,see?
Without the bad calls, two of the three teams you mentioned WOULD have winning records,(add to their number the Redskins, who had a blatant pass interference in the 4th quarter by the Bengals NOT called, which killed a potential scoring drive), and probably a few other teams that are now 1-2 and SHOULD be 2-1.
If this continues, this season will go down with an asterisk next to it denoting that it was refereed by stumble-bums…and that cheapens the Lombardi Trophy for whichever team takes it home.
Sorry, but the reason the “real” refs are locked out is because they want lavish pension plans for a part-time job. Moreover, most of them are lawyers, so it’s not like they’re hurting for money otherwise.
I didn’t stay up to see the end of the game, so all I saw were some highlights this morning.
The replacement refs really couldn’t decide what was the correct call in real time. Not unusual in the mad scramble of a last second Hail Mary, with a scrum of players fighting over the ball in the end zone. That’s why all scoring plays are reviewed upstairs.
So the call went up to the replay booth, staffed by “real” league officials. The league officials then told the refs that the touchdown call would stand.
So the Pack was upset about the last second call? Where the heck were they when their quarterback, the current league MVP, was getting beaten up in the first half, with 8 sacks allowed? Last time I checked, the replacement refs were not playing offensive line for Green Bay.
Do I think the regular refs would call a better game than the replacement refs? Yes.
Do I think having the regular refs in Seattle last night would have changed the outcome? Maybe yes, maybe no. There were some odd calls on both sides. That is part of the game.
The league will only get serious about making a deal when it starts to hit them in the pocketbook. Ratings are sky high, stadiums are full, and the NFL is front page news 7 days a week. I’m sort of surprised that the NHL, instead of a lockout, didn’t put their regular officials on strike. Gary Bettman would give up his right arm to have the “problems” that the NFL has.
If you want to complain, don’t direct the complaints to the replacements or the league office … Direct them to the referees union, who want both a twenty percent raise and a pension for a forty day a year job.
I agree. The referees get a very generous wage for something that is closer to a hobby than a job.
Who cares. The college game is so much better. The players tend to stay with the same team throughout their careers. NFL has gotten like MLB when Charlie Finely broke up the A’s. That was the end of Baseball for me. Look at UK Soccer. How many players are Brits. Even the Olympics got the disease. People with the slightest connection with a Country wear the Countries uniform to get a spot. There was one guy running for Puerto Rico (a Country?) that was born and raised in New York. His only connection was his parents.
College football is one of the few team sports that still sports teams.
I’ve been a faithful, every-day reader of PJM for 5 years, but that’s going to stop now. Bryan Preston shouldn’t be here. He belongs at the NYT. Good-bye.
Whatever. I’m not a fan of either team in that game and fwiw I dislike the Packers. A mess is a mess is a mess.
Do you understand that in order to read this column, you must click on the individual site? There are many other columns in this blog to choose from. It’s not all politics all the time.
I suspect the fix was in. The calls were so blatantly skewed FOR Seattle one has to suspect somebody got a good payday. Everybody can see on the replays ( you don’t even need it in slowmo ) that the GB player caught the ball and the Seattle receiver only had one arm on it.
The other call for pass interference was the same. The Seattle WR grabbed the GB defenders shoulder pads an pulled just before he raised his arms for the attempt at a catch.
The NFL has put its privates in the wringer here. Settle the damn strike you morons.
It’s not like the regular refs never made bad calls that effected the outcome of games. On the last play of a game last year with their opponents inside the two yard line the Lions almost took the head off the scrambling quarterback with a face mask that went uncalled. In a perfect world the QB would have had a final shot to win the game from the half yard line. As it was the Lions were the media darlings for making their first playoff run in ages while the team that had been wronged had to accept a “we blew that one” note from the league.
Or how about all those non calls for roughing the Saints were blessed with in their storybook 2009 title run? I didn’t hear the media pundits whining about unfairness when opposing QBs were very obviously being targeted for potentially career ending injuries. They were too busy talking about Katrina.
Green Bay played a lousy game. They couldn’t get their offense untracked. Then on the last play of the game Jennings broke the first rule taught to DBs when he went up in the air to try to catch the ball in a crowd instead of spiking it to the ground.
Seahawks fans remember. We remember the officials robbing the Seahawks of a Super Bowl win. It was the regular officials, supposedly the very best of the regular officials, and they called a lousy game. Gave it to the Steelers. Had the Packers kept their QB from 8(!) sacks in the first half, the game would never have come to a last second Hail Mary anyway. Too bad, so sad.
Excellent point about the poor officiating (by supposedly the best in the entire NFL with their 75 gazillion hours of experience) in the Super Bowl against Seattle.
The “real” refs cost a team the SUPER BOWL. Write about that Mr. Preston!
This “the Packers deserved to get shafted on the last play because they allowed 8 sacks in the first half” is one of the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard anyone say about football.
I made some dumb financial choices when I was in my 20s and ended up dead broke and living in my sister’s basement. I fixed my life, and now the Democrats consider me “rich” and confiscate huge sums of money from me every year. So do I deserve to be plundered, because I had a bad first half?
That’s exactly what you’re saying here.
The federal government’s job is not to decide who gets to succeed. The referees’ job is not to decide who gets to win.
I don’t see anyone writing that the Packers deserved to get shafted on the last play, because of their poor second half.
Several commentators have been pointing out that the Packers had ample opportunity to score a couple more points so that a last second scoring play would not cost them the game.
A typical NFL team will execute about 30 – 35 plays per half. So in the first half last night, the Packers allowed a sack on approximately 25% of their plays. No team at any level can win games with that level of offensive ineptitude. That they were down by only 1 score at halftime speaks to their defense.
The Packers shut down the Seahawks for the whole second half, until the final controversial snap. If the Packers had been able to convert even 1 of their offensive possessions in the first half to points, the end game would have been completely different.
The NFL is, pure and simple, entertainment. Every Tim, Dick, and sportswriter is burning up their keyboard this morning moaning about poor officiating. All of that is just publicity. If TV viewers turned off their sets, or stopped buying tickets, advertisers would bring the pressure on the league to settle with the regular refs.
The Felon’s League.. pffft.
Rugby is far more entertaining and requires more talent. The same goes for hockey. Jmo.
The Felon’s League has t.v. timeouts, regular timeouts, 30-second timeouts, injury timeouts, when the replay comes into play we see the same play DOZENS of TIMES (Hey Theismann!) etc.,
There’s 40, 40 seconds between EACH PLAY whereas the typical play lasts ~ 3-8 seconds. Then a 40-second break before the next play.
Then there’s the ‘classy’ kneel the last minute or so of a game.. yawn.
The Felon’s League players celebrate like a bunch of a-holes when doing their job expected job – tackle, provide a safety, first down, catch, TD, FG, sack, interception, loss of yards when tackling etc.,
As for the ref’s in this particular game.. 1 or so plays doesn’t and shouldn’t decide a game.
There is a solution. Change the channel; turn it off. Read a book.
Decades ago, many officials were homers, called plays to favor one team. Today, they call plays because they are strike breakers. Decades ago, players played with broken limbs because they, blue collar workers, needed a pay check. Today the struggle is between multimillionaires who could not pass an honest college exam.
America is collapsing. Millions are unemployed. We are in an unending war. Our “leaders” are clueless. Our schools are rotten. Our intense interest in entertainment, meaningless endeavors, is a sign of a declining society.
If this controversy is of concern to more than fifty people, we have a seriously flawed value system. Get a life, a real one.
You’re absolutely right.
I recall some years back watching/ listening to an NFL post-game interview. My God.. a supposed ‘college graduate’ couldn’t string together 3 words.
Others may think ‘They’re not there to educate..’ or some other EXCUSE.
The fact of the matter these boobs got a lifelong pass from academia as a whole. Disgusting.
So the “real” referees don’t change the outcomes of games? When they come back, nobody is going to complain about them costing their team a win? The media is going overboard on pointing out the mistakes of the replacement refs, because they want management to cave to labor. Must conservatives play along?
Overlooked in this controversy is that the Hawks played Super Bowl-quality defense last night and Green Bay wouldn’t have had their only touchdown without a phantom first down inside the Seattle two-yard line given to them by the officials. They had their field goal unit on the field and if they’d kicked the field goal, the Hawks would have been in position to win the game with a field goal which they were easily in position to do at the end of the game. There would have never been a need for the hail-mary pass.
As for the call, it was reviewed by the REGULAR replay officials, NOT replacement refs. Yes, it was a close call and, yes, Tate shoved a GB player out of the way and that wasn’t called, but Tate had his hands on the ball at the same time as Jennings and never lost contact. They hit the ground with both holding the ball and I think Tate finally wrestled the ball away. Tie goes to the offense and that’s what the replay officials confirmed.
Hawks win on a hail mary but wouldn’t have HAD to win on a hail mary without earlier bad calls. In fact, the real controversy here is that you would need a Google algorithm to search the bad calls (AND the non-calls) in this game. All eyes are on the final call but there were many other bad calls we could talk about that affected BOTH teams and several of those calls could have just as easily made the difference in the outcome.
The NFL teams can refuse to play if they choose. If they play, don’t complain.
I made two posts around 9AM and they still aren’t here. Why?
This is why I no longer follow football, I grew up in the sixties when football was the real deal today you almost have to go to law school to play the game.
Well, I have called a lot of football in the past, and watched a lot of football in between. The call was the correct call, excluding the obvious Offensive Pass Interference, which I have seen numerous times on the final play and it is never called. It doesn’t matter who has the majority of the ball when the players hit the ground both players had possesion of the ball, by rule simueltaneous possession goes to the offense: result TOUCHDOWN…
If this would of happened in the first, second or third quarter not a word would have been mentioned but on the final play all hades breaks out…
“would of”?
I don’t understand.
I thought Steve Young’s comments a week or so ago were on point – pointing out that the NFL was demonstrating that it produced an inelastic product – no matter the cost, aggravation, or controversy, folks were gonna pay, scribes would cover, and commentators would talk…
I have this feeling that if this game were played in Green Bay, the call would have gone the other way. I think the Refs were frightened of the fans. These Refs remind me of umpires at a Little-League game.
what is this? have you ever played football? by rule a simultaneous catch and control by both players is given to the offense.
the replacement ref’s call was correct and so was the replay. i’ve also watched several games and i haven’t seen any more mistakes by the refs than usual. i think there is some anti owners bias going on here.
i saw the play and thought the call was correct when called. i also played the game and the defensive guy’s mistake was trying to catch the ball. he should have knocked it to the ground.
What about the pass interfence call?
The only thing the Seattle player caught was the Packer player.
Part time 20 weekend per year refs making 160,000 per year, all expenses paid, trying to stiff arm the NFL with salary increases and pension plans.
Screw em, the temp officials will get better soon.
I just wish I could officiate, I would love that job.
Greetings:
I know that fans take these kinds of blunders much more seriously than I do. My father never allowed me to see sport as more than a game. In fact, the first time I mouthed off to a referee in a game, my father made it quite clear that future repetitions would result in a basketball-less future for me. The lack of the NFL’s first team officials leaves fans feeling shorted or at least with a diminished sense of the elite-ness of the game they are viewing. Fans and commentators seem committed to paying a deal of attention to this burr under their saddle, but they are not parties to the contract. I don’t see hear anyone suggesting that fans and commentators pass the plate and take up a collection for the lock-out officials so it can’t really be too serious a situation now, can it ???
And if I may insert a bit of my own agenda in regard to the “National” Football League, many players in the league have affected the wearing of some kind of close fitting head-wear under their helmets. It seems that the “National” Football League, which apparently has any number of rules about the appropriateness of head-wear, finds it acceptable that this couture be worn during the playing of our National Anthem, perhaps due to the complexity of removing it and replacing it so shortly before the beginning of the game, or maybe Just because, well, their “National” isn’t that kind of National.
(And, my regards to the Oakland Raiders who, this past Sunday, allowed a group to sing the National Anthem, one of whose members wore a baseball cap and another a beret.)
I can certainly understand that this is probably some branding complexity that remains beyond my intellectual grasp, but when you call yourself a “National” anything and put all those cute little flag stickers on every player’s helmet, why not go whole hog and require appropriate courtesy in regard to our National Anthem.
I had no skin in the GB/Seattle game. All I saw was the end-zone mob scene typical of all Hail Mary passes. On the way up, the GB defender intercepts the ball, but on the way down a Seattle receiver gets his hands on the ball, and by the time they hit the ground it looks like a dual-possession. It was a very close call and the ref called it by the book – dual-possession goes to the offense. Some fans happy, others angry, as always. But then I hear the sportscasters ranting about the refs. The ref who made the call happens to be a long-time ref with much experience, not some rookie. I get that the sportscasters, just like the newscasters, are institutionally biased in favor of labor unions. I am speaking only of this play, not all the other potential or actual bad calls. In this one case, I see a controversial close call that might have been called incorrectly by any regular “union” ref, but probably was called correctly here in spite of the sportscaster-induced fan uproar.