Viewpoint: It's time to stop criticizing NFL's replacement officials
A replacement NFL referee during the first half of an NFL preseason football game between the Miami Dolphins and Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Aug. 10 in Miami.
While much has been made of the (lack of) quality of the NFL’s replacement referees, it’s time to be real with ourselves -- the officials aren’t going to stop us from watching football.
Americans can't seem to resist the NFL, and the proof is in the pudding.
Week two’s Monday Night Football showdown between the Denver Broncos and the Atlanta Falcons was one of the worst officiated games of the season thus far.
In the first half, three calls were reviewed and overturned, and in the game there were 18 total penalties, including an 11-yard defensive holding call against the Falcons when the infraction is only five yards.
Still, the game drew more than 11.6 million viewers -- the fourth largest audience of any cable program in 2012.
Big ratings mean big revenue. That being said, why should anyone expect the owners to cut the regular refs a check if the replacement refs aren’t all that detrimental to the product? Isn’t that what big business in this country is all about -- finding cheap labor and maximizing profits?
It's OK for big corporations to hire cheap labor to do the grunt work, but when the NFL has replacement officials work the games, everyone makes a big stink. How much sense does that make?
From a statistical standpoint, the replacements are actually on par with the regulars, according to a report on ESPN.com.
Through two weeks, the penalties-per-game average, 14.7, is lower than the 15.2 of a year ago. Player safety calls -- the fineable offenses like unnecessary roughness and roughing the passer -- were at 75 this year, just up from last year’s 74. Defensive pass interference and illegal contact calls are barely up in 2012, from 48 to 51.
One thing I won’t dispute is the replacement officials’ lack of professionalism, which was prevalent late in the first quarter Monday night when a fumble turned into a fiasco and stopped the game for six minutes as the officials tried to sort things out.
It was undoubtedly a minor irritant, but it was nothing to write home about. These guys aren’t perfect and neither are the regular refs. Every week, fans gripe about a call or no-call with the regulars. In some cases, those calls are major game-changers.
Even Bill Leavy, one of the most respected officials in the NFL, admitted his poor officiating in Super Bowl XL affected the outcome of the game.
"It left me with a lot of sleepless nights, and I think about it constantly," Leavy said in 2010. "I'll go to my grave wishing that I'd been better."
Surely he’s not the only one whose calls have impacted the outcomes of games.
If anything, the replacement referees’ ineptitude is a source of comic relief. Tucker Tholen, 20, said the NFL is more interesting when officials botch calls and struggle to keep the game in order.
Tholen recalled a recent instance. "When I first came into the room, my roommate said, 'Watch the refs. Watching them mess up is almost more entertaining than the game.'"
It doesn’t matter who is officiating the NFL. It's great entertainment, and that’s something we’ve lost sight of. This week, let’s lay off the officials and enjoy the excellent product that is the NFL.
Talking about the replacement officials is getting tired already. It's only week three. The season is just getting started.
Sam Gordon is a Fall 2012 Collegiate Correspondent. Learn more about him here.
This story originally appeared on the USA TODAY College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.