So it is interesting that a former NFL refereeing shill, Mike Periera of FOX fame (the same man that once accused a college football conference of effectively fixing games with secret officials in the booth!), has written a book: After Further Review: My Life Including the Infamous, Controversial, and Unforgettable Calls that Changed the NFL.
If you read the link of what I put above, it says "Roger Goodell vs. The Refs", which should tell you all you need to know.
Sunday (appropriately, Week 1 of what might as well become the Fifth Branch of the Military) is 15 years since September 11th.
Not only was that day an act of treason and a coup against our nation by a shadow government installed by our Supreme Court, it was also the day the NFL went from National Obsession to National Religion.
I'll address that (and some of the orbiting concerns which have come up in the news recently) on Sunday. Some effects of that, however, can be inferred by the title of Periera's book.
Mike Periera writes: "The NFL, with the exception of the senior vice president of officiating, Dean Blandino, are not big fans of officials or officiating in general."
He's right, and one only needs to take a look at the last two nights of the replacement referees during the 2012 referee lockout to see why.
Sunday night, Week 3, September 23, 2012. New England at Baltimore. A contentious game with some questionable officiating (which even the NBC booth just almost laughs at as part and parcel of three weeks of regular-season football which bordered on farce on so many levels!) culminates in two acts which turned the refereeing from fixed-by-league level to what occurs in many dimensions of world soccer: Matches fixed in the name of getting the referees out of there alive!!!
Ray Lewis had already been a critic of the replacement refs, and basically was already screaming at the league to get them back. During the New England game, he finally snapped and appeared to at least go "Murderer Ray" in the eyes in the face of one of the replacement referees. (An act which should've ended his night.)
Instead, all Hell broke loose.
The NFL, after Lewis' comments, told the referees to throw 15-yard penalties at any point the coaches or players appeared to intimidate them. That led to this farce:
Basically, people from outside the NFL were exposed to what the NFL is all about, and basically reacted normally -- that the part and parcel of what the NFL does is far beyond what anybody is supposed to take. And, because Ray Lewis and the crowd were about to riot, a missed field goal for Baltimore is called good, and Baltimore wins 31-30.
If you thought that one was bad:
Tell that to the referee of the game the next night!
Monday Night, Week 3, September 24, 2012: Packers at Seahawks. The Birth of the Push of the Legion of Boom: Fail Mary.
Don't need to tell you what happened or even show you. That play has taken a place next to the Tuck Rule Play in football lore. Those two plays have laid at least two portions of the post-9/11 narrative of the NFL as National Religion.
But anyone who thinks the NFL has one whit of caring about the men in the stripes needs to take a look at the video and the link I provided to my own blog (and a 2013 ESPN video I hope still exists!) about the two incidents.
They don't.
Back to the book excerpt:
"Why do I think that? Because officiating is perceived as a negative, and that reflects poorly on the league. And the 2015 season was a perfect example of that. You will seldom hear anybody talk about how great officiating is and how good it is for the NFL. The fact is that any time an official throws a flag, it’s a negative. It’s somebody doing something wrong, and that translates into the league getting complaints."
Which rides two-fold into the head injuries stuff.
First, many of the fans don't want to see head injuries as a bad thing. Second, it's one of the main reasons the league has cut back many-fold on the number and amount of fines, as well as the reporting of same.
They want to see people getting maimed as a good thing. (One of the reasons many people are invested in the Seahags to win another title this season.)
After discussing how grading the officials and retaining only those who had good grades under his watch, Periera laments:
"And, unfortunately, if you look at a four-week snapshot of the 2015 NFL season, I think that period became a watershed moment for how the league changed its approach to the accountability of its officials. Blameworthiness went from grades to suspensions and then insults."
He blames Goodell, Troy Vincent (head of the NFLPA) and Dean Blandino.
"None of them have ever been officials, so it would be difficult for them to know exactly what it’s like to be on the field. And if the 2015 season is any indication, accountability will be handled by the league much differently going forward.
But it all starts and ends with Goodell. As I said, Goodell is not fond of officiating, regardless of what he’s said in public, and he certainly didn’t like dealing with officiating lockouts, which the league has had to handle twice since 2001. That’s why the senior vice president of officiating has to stand up for his officials."
Of course not. As evidenced by what happened when people outside the NFL bubble came in to the inner workings of the NFL debacle, to lose control (and very tight control!) of the narrative usually has the entire mess come spinning apart. Hence, why the NFL went running to the regular officials hours after the Seattle and Baltimore debacles in 2012.
By comparison, Periera goes into Bottlegate, the literal end of any relevance the Cleveland Browns have had in the National Football League.
Periera claims the referee, Terry McAulay, had no authority to end the game.
Periera is wrong. That was the most recent forfeiture in the history of the NFL. The Cleveland fans rioted, threw stuff on the field, made the field dangerous, McAulay (especially with no real chance for Cleveland to get the ball back) terminated the football game and awarded it, with the score standing, to Jacksonville... AS WELL HE SHOULD HAVE!
Goodell (as newly-appointed EVP and COO of the NFL) wanted McAulay suspended!!! For McAulay forfeiting the game to Jacksonville after the fucking Cleveland fans rioted!!!
It is as if Goodell was giving a tell that this was exactly the kind of atmosphere the league wanted to PROMOTE in the months and years past 9/11!
So much so that Goodell ASSAULTED Periera to continue the discussion in the office to get his point across!!!
He then relates a 2008 incident. Ed Hochuli, Chargers at Broncos, Broncos won because of a garbage call (which could not be materially reversed, because Hochuli called a clear fumble an incomplete pass, killing the play immediately -- which resulted in the Broncos winning the game.
Periera, as was allowed, gave Hochuli the maximum downgrade and waited to see what happened. His crew had a stellar remainder of the season, but...
"When I took the playoff assignments to Goodell to approve, he told me that Hochuli was not to be in the playoffs, based upon the call he made in Week 2. It wasn’t quite Goodell-Pereira “The Rematch,” but I argued. I couldn’t in good conscience keep them out of the playoffs. I’d be sending a message to every crew out there that if they made a critical mistake at the beginning of the year, even if they battled back to have a better overall season than most crews, they’d be held out of the playoffs. That wouldn’t have been fair, because they had earned the right to make it under the system."
So WHEN your team gets screwed, you know where the blame can go.
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