Paging Tommy Young, or Randy Anderson, or the Hebners...

The life of a referee is hard, we get it.

But one of the key things that helps make the script of pro wrestling work is a referee who is utterly blind, deaf, and//or dumb that anything can go on around him and it wouldn't matter.

Have we reached this point in US professional sports?

Sounds like we have.  Ask Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin.

 

Someone explain to me why not only was no flag thrown, but Tomlin wasn't penalized a Baltimore touchdown and then ejected from the sideline for that.

How is that different from the Jets coach a couple years back?  You can clearly see the returner almost having to stiff-arm Tomlin on the way through giving time for #28 to tackle him for the Steelers.

And then all the announcers start giggling over it like little schoolchildren once they realize (and it took a couple looks) how badly he got one over on the refs and the Ravens.

And THEN the erstwhile shill for the official meme league official that placates these kinds of controversies had the gall to say the following:

Now we find out that the referee for the game was Clete Blakeman, the same official who led the crew that "missed" the pass interference on the Panthers vs. the Patriots.

And there is why this kind of stuff happens.  You have competent officiating, it's harder to cover for what the league really wants to happen -- closer games, the "right teams and players" winning, etc. and so forth.

And it's not just the Neanderthal Felon League.

Shall we go back to earlier this week, and the Jason Kidd Experiment in how to get an extra time out...

Brooklyn Nets coach Jason Kidd has no time outs left against the Lakers.

All of a sudden, he spills his drink, forcing a stoppage.  And, under NBA rules, his team is allowed to gather around the assistant to draw up a play.

Doesn't work (LA wins 99-94), and he's fined $50,000 for the maneuver.

Are we at the point that enough people are wise that the referees in professional sports are either so incompetent or so crooked that:

a) they have no business out there, and
b) that all sense of Fair Play has gone out the window.