Bad refereeing in sport

[Paul McKeown]

Oh come on! Worst refereeing decision in history was awarding Mike Phillips a try against Ireland in 2011, using some random beach ball which he had stuffed up his jumper...

[Andrew Bak]

I've been watching a fair few games this season in the NFL and it is blatantly obvious that these "replacement referees" are not cut out for officiating NFL games.

I agree with the basic sentiment that the specific play in question was not a trivial call to make re. catch/interception, but that the Offensive Pass Interference was a really horrible blown (non)call.

There are three main deficiencies that I can seperate with these replacement refs (RRs):

1) It seems that the referees are unable to keep up with the pace of the game and most of the errors and strange calls seem to be on pass interferences, holding calls and the like. These penalty calls are essentially almost being applied randomly on any given play, which makes watching these games very hard to watch. This inability to be consistent with the calls is understandable as the RRs are not qualified or experienced in dealing with the roughness and pace of professional football.

2) The RRs are unable to control the players. This is linked to the general indecisiveness that the RRs exhibit. This is leading to slower games with even less flow that is normally the case. This also leads to players and coaches trying to "work" the referees which only emphasises the problems in 1).

3) However I am surprised at the number of basic procedural errors that these guys are making, e.g. Challenges granted with no timeouts available, two 2-minute warnings in the same half, spotting yards from penalties from the wrong spot. Surely the rules are essentially the same in Div 2 College football and NFL (for the most part)? I can only assume that the RRs are getting flustered due to the pressure and having to worry about everything else going on.

Roger Goodell doesn't seem to be in any hurry to end this dispute. The Bounty-gate scandal seems to show that the NFL is his way or no way. Let's hope that a compromise can be reached soon.

[Matthew Turner]

Andrew,
I think the key problem is the pass interference calls. The rules have changed this year; The full time officials would dissect the changes in all their minutiae, discuss them with their officiating team and anticipate almost every scenario. The replacement officials just cannot really do this. They will work things out as they go along and eventually they'll have it sorted out. Unfortunately, as you've eluded to, the poor calls on pass interference have led to the general breakdown of the officiating. The players and the coaches have lost confindence in the officials and now we've got lots of skirmishes and attempt to bully and influence the officials.

[Kevin Thurlow]

"This is leading to slower games with even less flow that is normally the case. "

Is that possible in American football?

[Sean Hewitt]

Oh come on! Worst refereeing decision in history was awarding Mike Phillips a try against Ireland in 2011, using some random beach ball which he had stuffed up his jumper...

{LIKE}

[Eoin Devane]

You Packers have had enough success in recent years - let us Seahawks fans have this one, won't you?

It seems we have quite a few NFL fans on here. Is anyone else going to the International Series game at Wembley next month? It'll be the first one I've been to, so I'm really looking forward to it.

[Matthew Turner]

I've been to three of the Wembley games so far, the first game, Giants - Dolphins was very good. The second, Saints - Chargers was incredible. Eight hours of solid entertainment with Mardi Gras and all sorts going on around the match. I went in 2011 as well, it was good, but I don't think the Buccs put in the same sort of effort around the game as the home teams did for the first two matches. It will be interesting to see if the Rams rise to the chalenge.
I'm not planning to go at the moment but there are sure to be a few chess players in attendence, Ben Purton and the Eckersley Waites are good candidates.

[Alex Holowczak]

You Packers have had enough success in recent years - let us Seahawks fans have this one, won't you?

No.

On the bright side, we should still be OK for the playoffs. Seattle probably won't get in, but hopefully there will be a rematch in the playoffs at Lambeau.

[Eoin Devane]

On the bright side, we should still be OK for the playoffs. Seattle probably won't get in, but hopefully there will be a rematch in the playoffs at Lambeau.

I think Seattle have a good chance of making the playoffs. I suspect it will depend a lot on how the defence performs. Surprisingly, the big threat in the division seems to be coming from Arizona.

[Matthew Turner]

You Packers have had enough success in recent years - let us Seahawks fans have this one, won't you?

No.

On the bright side, we should still be OK for the playoffs. Seattle probably won't get in, but hopefully there will be a rematch in the playoffs at Lambeau.

Really?
The schedule is here
http://www.nfl.com/schedules/2012/REG/Packers

I can see losses at NY Giants and Houston and a further 2 losses from away at Chicago, Minnesota and Detroit

and wins at home vs Jags, Vikings, Lions, Titans and away at Indi and St Louis

That gets you to 8 and 6, needing to beat New Orleans and Arizona at home to get to 10 and 6 and (probably) a wildcard

[Alex Holowczak]

http://www.nfl.com/schedules/2012/REG/Packers

I can see losses at NY Giants and Houston and a further 2 losses from away at Chicago, Minnesota and Detroit

and wins at home vs Jags, Vikings, Lions, Titans and away at Indi and St Louis

That gets you to 8 and 6, needing to beat New Orleans and Arizona at home to get to 10 and 6 and (probably) a wildcard

I disagree with your assessment. I reckon we'll be 5-1 against the NFC North (we're already 1-0). Against the NFC West, I reckon we'll be 2-2 (we're already 0-2). Our other NFC opponents are New Orleans and New York, and I reckon we'll be 1-1 over those two games. Against the AFC South, I reckon we'll go 3-1. So there's 11-5 over the season. I reckon that could be good enough to win the NFC North.

The Packers team is very similar from the one that won the Super Bowl two years ago, and the one that went 15-1 last season. I'd be amazed if we didn't make the playoffs.

I thought San Francisco would be in contention for the NFC, so a loss at SF in week 1 seemed not too bad. A win at Chicago was good, and we should have won in Seattle but for the refereeing. So despite being 1-2, I'm not too concerned.

[Matthew Turner]

Alex H. wrote
"I thought San Francisco would be in contention for the NFC, so a loss at SF in week 1 seemed not too bad. A win at Chicago was good, and we should have won in Seattle but for the refereeing. So despite being 1-2, I'm not too concerned"

There are few things to remember here. True, San Francisco might be very good, but Green Bay were at home so a loss is a little disappointing. As you say beating the Bears is a good result. True Green Bay should have beaten Seattle, but I think most observers would say that Seattle were the better side. Are Seattle really that good? I am not so sure.

[Alex Holowczak]

Alex H. wrote
"I thought San Francisco would be in contention for the NFC, so a loss at SF in week 1 seemed not too bad. A win at Chicago was good, and we should have won in Seattle but for the refereeing. So despite being 1-2, I'm not too concerned"

There are few things to remember here. True, San Francisco might be very good, but Green Bay were at home so a loss is a little disappointing. As you say beating the Bears is a good result. True Green Bay should have beaten Seattle, but I think most observers would say that Seattle were the better side. Are Seattle really that good? I am not so sure.

I don't think Seattle are that good. I think Seattle were the OK on Monday. Green Bay were awful in the first half, but were better in the second half.

I certainly don't see Green Bay losing more than 5 games against that schedule; they'll probably win a game later in the season that they shouldn't to make up for losing to Seattle.

[Clive Blackburn]

All this speculation is meaningless so long as the referees' strike is still on!

The replacement referees introduce a totally random element

[Matthew Turner]

Alex,
Arizona's results have been amazing so far; Take a look at their schedule and what do you think they will be when they play Green Bay? There could be a bit of momentum behind them.