Roger Goodell is the worst, a nothingburger who rose to power on his daddy's good name, a sort of Commissioner Fredo whose legacy thus far is two self-destructive labor fights, some owner collusion, and ceaseless bullshit about the sanctity of the game. We've spent a lot of time writing about all these things, but…
By the time the referee lockout ended last night, many of the scab replacements had become notorious for blunders or impropriety of some kind. Jeff Sadorus fell into that classification when reports surfaced 10 days ago that he had been a paid practice official for years with the Seattle Seahawks, which wasn't an…
Referee Gene Steratore and his officiating crew, with a combined 70 years of professional experience, walked out of the M&T Bank Stadium tunnel to a standing O and cheers from everyone on hand. (For the record, the first penalty of tonight's game came just 2:41 in: Illegal contact on the Browns defense and automatic…
I suppose we shouldn't be surprised that this happened, but it's maddening, nonetheless. Shortly after the NFL referee lockout came to an end last night, Mike Florio posted this pile of crap on ProFootballTalk.com, in which he argues that Roger Goodell actually deserves our praise for how he handled the lockout. Glad…
Here's a greatest hits compilation that surfaced on YouTube within minutes of the news that the NFL and its referees had come to agreement on a new labor deal. Seeing all these lowlights strung together in one sad clip after another does give an appreciation for the unprecedented levels of suckitude that filled our…
After 48 regular season games that nearly brought the National Football League to its knees and turned the league's officiating into a recurring national joke, the NFL and the referees union have agreed to a new eight-year deal and the officials will be back on the job Thursday night in Baltimore.
The replacement officials made many mistakes over the weekend, some of such great consequence that they inspired incredible anger, others bad enough only to prompt a very loud "bullshit" chant. But they've all been bad. Instead of focusing on one specific mistake, or all the mistakes as a whole, though, we want to…
The following tweet was sent out by Adam Schefter just a few minutes ago:
Hoo boy. Notice how every broadcaster has come down so hard on the replacement refs? But it only really seemed to start in Week 2? This is not a coincidence.
It was bound to happen. Call it Murphy's Law of Contrarian Journalism. Two weeks back, it was ESPN's Darren Rovell looking to blame the NHL lockout on "die-hard fans," and now Ashley Fox, his colleague at the WWL, has stepped her toe into the shitstorm that erupted Monday night. Seems we've really all got it wrong…
You're angry at the replacement officials. The Green Bay Packers are angry at the replacement officials. Kyle Shanahan is angry at the replacement officials. Barack Obama is angry at the replacement officials. And, yes, even though they're not allowed to discuss it, the NFL coaches are angry too. Here are photos of…
As the NFLPA's assistant executive director for external affairs, George Atallah is the official spokesman for the NFL players. As you might expect, he's a busy man right now. "What a nutty day," he told us earlier, when we approached him to see if he'd be willing to do a live chat.
This afternoon, we were forwarded the following email from someone who claims to work in the same building where the NFL league offices are housed:
We got an email from a reader named Tyler a little while ago. Tyler and his friends are fed up with the work of the NFL's scab officials, so they decided to contact locked-out ref Ed Hochuli by emailing him at his law office to say they missed him. And look: Hochuli responded!
Your letters:
Here is the most important part of the NFL's official statement on the final play of last night's Packers-Seahawks game:
After witnessing the debacle that was last night's Packers-Seahawks game, New Jersey state senator Stephen Sweeney announced that he is planning to introduce legislation that will ban replacement officials from being used in professional sporting events, a move that is totally reasonable and definitely not an…
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