Most of us have seen it by now. The Monday Night Football debacle. The Inaccurate Reception. Senseless in Seattle. Whatever nickname you want to call it, this was a big deal across all facets of society. For a quick recap: Seattle and Green Bay are playing on Monday Night Football, Seattle is losing 12-7. No time left on the clock, and Seattle QB Russell Wilson launches a Hail Mary into the end zone. Seattle WR Golden Tate shoved the GB DB in the back before leaping for the catch. GB defender MD Jennings catches the ball first before Tate grabs it with him. One referee signals Touchdown, one signals for the clock to stop, meaning touchback. The final rule is Touchdown Seahawks on a play that should have clearly been an interception. And official disaster on what has already been a sensitive subject. Now, I’m not really here to decide if the refs were right or not, I think the rest of the world has already determined that.  I am here, however, to defend those men that are working this thankless job.

The NFL referees have been locked out from work based on their demand for higher wages and better retirement benefits. Whoever is correct in this argument doesn’t matter, but what does matter is the fact that Men who were High School, Arena League, Division 3 and even Lingerie League officials are now being asked to officiate some of the biggest and fastest human beings our species can create. The difference in size and speed between Division 3 and the NFL is unbelievable if you’ve never seen it live. This is really like taking a lawyer who just passed the Bar Exam and has been working on defending people trying to get out of speeding tickets and asking him to defend OJ Simpson with a team of other rookie lawyers. The entire world is watching, and the entire world is just waiting for you to screw up.

I’ve been an official before. I’ve been in control of the game and had people screaming at me when they didn’t agree with my call. My highest experience of officiating has come in a regional intramural tournament, so I can’t even begin to compare the difficulty that these replacement officials in the NFL are going through. I can tell you with exact certainty that they are doing everything in their power to get the call right. There isn’t any conspiracy theory as people have been saying and people aren’t paying off the refs to fix the games. Basically, these people are doing the best they can and they are just flat out too inexperienced to properly call these games.

So many calls in sports are subjective. At live speeds, and with the cameras on with everyone watching, it’s nearly impossible to get every call right. Even the original refs don’t get every call right, and we had plenty of problems with them in the past. Most people are intelligent enough to realize that it’s impossible to get them all right, and they can’t get too upset at the replacements for the judgment calls. However, most are upset with the inconsistencies and lack of knowledge of the rules, which would seem to point the blame right at the replacements. I blame the NFL and the NFL Referees Association for letting this charade go on too long. If the NFL and the NFLRA really care about the product that they are putting forward and they care about the fans, they’ll come to terms and bring our flawed officials back.

It’s hard to officiate a game if you’ve played and watched the sport your entire life. It’s even harder to not know you’re needed until 2 months before a professional sports season begins. I’ll never blame the people for doing their best. They just weren’t given the tools to succeed.