NFL refs back in place, but damage may be done
Referee Gene Steratore, right, and back judge Bob Waggoner, left, look around the field before the NFL football game between the Baltimore Ravens and Cleveland Browns in Baltimore on September 27.
The nightmare is over.
After three weeks of putrid officiating and months of deliberation, the NFL and its referees finally reached an agreement to end their lockout, just in time for Week 4 games.
The replacement officials who called the first three games will fade back into obscurity, and the regular refs, who make plenty of mistakes in their own right, will be thrust back into the limelight.
And though the quality of the games is sure to improve, the damage done might be irreparable.
The replacement referees cost the Green Bay Packers a Week 3 victory over the Seattle Seahawks when they ruled Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson’s Hail Mary pass a touchdown when it looked to be intercepted by a Packers defender on the final play of regulation.
The game's result, a 14-12 Seahawks victory, quickly became an afterthought. The blown call, on the other hand, turned into a top national story.
The game proved to be a tipping point, as negotiations between the league and the regular officials quickly progressed after the debacle. On Thursday, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell issued an apology of sorts during a conference call.
"Obviously, when you go through something like this, it's painful for everybody," he said. "Most importantly, it's painful for our fans. And we're sorry to have to put our fans through that, but it's something that for the short term you sometimes have to do to make sure you get the right kind of agreement for the long term."
The University of Minnesota is home to many Green Bay fans, due in large part to the state’s proximity to Wisconsin, and they weren’t shy about voicing their opinions about what happened to their team.
“They were blatantly robbed. I blame both the NFL and the replacement refs,” said Noragene Lewis, 20, a Packers fan.
“It probably would be the worst I’ve felt about a loss we ever had,” she said. “I know we couldn’t have done anything different to prevent it. It was out of our hands completely."
The Packers, 1-2 through three games, have plenty of time to right the ship, especially with the regular referees back in place, but what if they missed playoffs as a result of the incorrect calls made against them?
“I would put an asterisk by the season,” said Philip Ford, a 21-year-old Green Bay fan. “[The regular officials] would have correctly made every call that was screwed up last week.”
The regulars were back for Thursday night's game between the Cleveland Browns and the Baltimore Ravens. Fans greeted the officials with a standing ovation and Baltimore linebacker Ray Lewis, one of the faces of the NFL, shared a respectful embrace with crew chief Gene Steratore.
“Before now, I didn’t pay as much respect to the refs as I should have," Noragene Lewis said. "They took a stand and the replacement refs just showed that we have to pay them more money.”
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.