For Nolan...and anyone else who wants to read

[NySportsfan]

Nolan,

I agree 100000% on your post re:The Eagles Bears game on Sunday. I had Chicago +6.5 for a small wager, yet the officiating was downright horrible, more like appaling. I watched the whole entire game, b/c I live in NY and giants played at night, and jets at 4, so they gave us this game due to philly being close to NY, and i didnt bother going to a bar to watch the dish for a change...I couldnt believe some of those absurd calls on Mc'Quarters, even Moose Johnston who called the game, said let the guys play, I usually dont bother to bitch about officiating but it was so bad, and nolan brought it up so I'll chime in. I just browsed at the Play By Play from the game. and here are some of the nasty details..........

Bears-12 penalties for 121 yds!
-4 penalties that kept Phila drives alive
Granted, all the bears bettors are lucky they covered, esp since Reid went for that 4th and 1 deep in bears territory up 16-13 w/11 mins to go in the game, went for a lame pitch and got stopped.....Nolan, Im sure you agree with my take on this game, and if anyone else wants to comment, some of the calls were just horrible on McQuarters.....

Mike

 

[yyz]

You should be happy that Andy Reid went for it on fourth down, and missed it, instead of kicking a chip shot fg that would have put the Eagles up another 3 points!

Anyone who had the Bears got lucky, with that stupid move.

 

[Nolan Dalla]

NY Sports Fan:

Thanks for the comments. You are absolutely right.

Even though the officiating in the PHIL-CHI game was atrocious, the WORST call I saw yesterday was in the the BUFF-NWE game.

Middle of the third quarter. Third down and long for the Bills who are trailing. Bills QB Bledsoe goes back to pass. He gets wrapped up in the pocket by a Patriot defensive lineman who makes a hard clean tackle on Bledsoe. Bledsoe down falls to the turf, with ball in hand. After the play, he gets up and starts walking to the sidelines. Bledsoe nor anyone else sees a penalty here.

YELLOW FLAG!

It seems the referee thought the defensive lineman threw him to the ground TOO HARD. Get this -- Bledsoe HAS THE FOOTBALL, but he was tackled "too hard." The game announcer made a confusing statement that "you can tackle the quarterback, but you can't throw him down that hard and land on top of him."

Huh? RUn that by me again? You can sack the quarterback in a tough divisional game between two rivals, but don't land on top of him?

Brilliant.

Now, the NFL is penalizing teams for "tackling too hard."

It's insanity.

We have the idiots in stripes giving out 40 yard penalties and first downs on balls that have no chance at being caught (pass interferance). We have "taunting" now -- which I suppose means you can't saying anything negative to an opponent (this rule is completely unenforceable and is dangerous -- since "taunting" could probably be called on every play). We have $50,000 fines given out on pass defenders who make good clean hits. Defenders are often called for "illegal contact" when half the time the recievers RUN RIGHT INTO the defensive back. Finally, how many times have we seen an official standing five feet from the play on the sideline and GET THE CALL WRONG? They look right at the action and can't make the right call! Or worse, they are looking right at the play then have to look up and first see what the other official is going to call. They look like bumbling idiots most of the time. Compared to baseball (which is very subjective because of the strike zone), the NFL officiating and rules are an embarassment to professional sports leagues. Something MUST be done.

I am literally tearing my hair out when I watch these games.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. GOD BLESS THE GREAT BOTTLE THROWING FANS OF CLEVELAND. We need MORE incidents like that so the NFL gets the message.

Nolan Dalla

 

[x2man]

I totally agree, SOMETHING HAS TO BE DONE!!!
I was watching the Cin/Hou game. Cin gets an int at the endzone, he proceeds to run it back for a Td. Well upon further review, the player steped out of bounds. The ref reviews the replay and say that he can't overturn the call. What a bunch of BS.
I really believe that if the players are getting fined for bunch of stupid calls, the refs should be punished for not have the "balls" to correct a mistake. When was the last time a ref was punished for screwing up.
The 2 worst "bail me out calls in the NFL" are pass interference and inadvertant whistle. IMO, these are judgement calls that the
ref shouldn't have to make.

 

[ussrv]

It is every week that these bad calls are made. Last monday night was one of the worst games that I have ever seen. Bad spots, and overturned catch by Ron Dixon. In a sport where a call can make such an impact it is important that the nfl do something about the alarming amount of bad calls. It would be nice just to see a good football game without all the damn stupid calls or no calls.








Jacob

 

[Topdog]

NFL Officials

NFL Officials

I agree with most of what Nolan says, with a bottle throwing disclaimer. The officials can change the outcome of a game easier than the special teams. I also agree with Nolan's reference to the Giants touchdown at the end of the first half. The referee was right on top of the call and then was influenced by someone well down the line away from the play. Thank goodness for instant replay, even though this seems like a contradiction in terms. It would seem easy enough to get all the officials together and decide on certain penalties, like holding, and pass interference. Make the rule as black and white as possible and pass this info on to teams and coaches and THEN enforce them. The only thing left would be to hold officials accountable for their calls.

As for players, remember that most of these players have never had a real job and because of the big dollars they make, have a slanted view of money. Fines do not seem like the answer. Suspend them from games and their choices will be clear on cheap shots. This league could easily patrol their own business, with players, coaches, and officials.

Rules are rules and we are losing a generation of children in America due to the lack of respect for rules.

Maybe each week someone here could post a NFL rule from their rulebook and we could comment on how well or poorly it is officiated, with examples. Pass interference will be one of my favorites.

Topdog

 

[NySportsfan]

Good thoughts Nolan and crew..... I didn't see the bills game, but I saw new england was up the whole game, granted Im sure some bad calls occured... I dont remember where I saw it, probably that Bear game, but they barely tapped the qb and got a bs flag.....worse, is that sometimes the calls come after the plays over, well after, you think your off the hook, then you see the vaunted yellow flag..... Granted, I know pro football is a very hard game to referee and it moves very fast, but these guys are paid HANDSOMELY...Coaches get fired over the results of these games, which sometimes come down to the bogus calls of these refs, something needs to be done I agree....
The Jax-NYG game last night, Im a big giant fan, and bet them as well...not that this play mattered a whole lot, b/c the giants were basically in control throughout, but that pass INT called on Michael Strahan, he barely touched the guy, cmon........Look, I know complaining about refs is easy, and we get to see replays 2-3 times, and the refs dont, but its getting out of hand. Cant blame refs on losing bets, but sometimes the calls are so horrible that something needs to be said and people need to vent I dont mention or blame refs that much, cant control it, but really pissed me off the past few weeks

Mike

 

[EricG]

unfortunately these stupid calls some of these refs make, make it harder to handicapp a game, no way to account for that. It sure seems to be helping the offenses, therefore making what could have been an under game to go over the total. I don't know why more teams don't throw it down field more on man to man coverage when it seems like you have about a 50% chance of getting a pass-interference call. Sucks!

 

[Valuist]

YYZ-

I don't think Bears bettors got lucky because of one mistake by Reid. I've been watching the NFL for over 30 years and this game had to be one of the worst officiated games I've ever seen. How many Eagle drives were kept alive by pass interferences on 3rd and long? There were 6 pass interference calls on Chicago in the game; if Philly couldn't cover with that, they didn't deserve to.

 

[djv]

When will they ever change pass interferance in the NFL to a 10 or 15 yrd penalty. It is grazy how many times a team gets more then 20 yrds. Of course they will say they even up. BS, Might take to the next week to get even. To late then.

 

[yyz]

Valuist,

True enough.