In Sunday's game between the Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals the replacement referees once again exerted themselves into the game.
Scott Fujita: Replacement Refs Are ‘Completely Unacceptable’
On an incomplete pass, the referees mistakenly allowed the clock to continue running when it should have been stopped. Scott Fujita, part of the Saints bounty case and an outspoken player, took issue with that.
Missed calls & bad calls are going to happen. That's part of the deal & we can all live with it. But not knowing all the rules...
— Scott Fujita (@scottfujita99) September 17, 2012
...and major procedural errors (like allowing the clock to run after an incomplete pass) are completely unacceptable. Enough already.
— Scott Fujita (@scottfujita99) September 17, 2012
He's right. It's one thing to complain about judgment calls -- like pass interference. We're probably going to be complaining about calls like that whether it's a regular referee or a replacement referee.
But the procedural issues, like the one in the Browns-Bengals game, are unacceptable under any circumstances. That absolutely can not happen.
In some ways, I'm glad that the replacement refs are screwing up like this. It puts even more pressure on the NFL to do a deal with the NFLRA and be done with this. Even mild-mannered Joe Flacco wondered after the Ravens game if this was affecting the integrity of the game. We can't keep spending every Monday morning reviewing how the refs screwed it up.
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