Petition urges NFL to fire officiating crew after blown call in NFC Championship game

FoxNews ^ | 21-Jan-2019 | By Ryan Gaydos

[topher]

The NFL is being urged to fire the crew who officiated the NFC Championship game between the Los Angeles Rams and New Orleans Saints over a blown call in the fourth quarter of the matchup.

A petition launched after the Rams defeated the Saints in overtime, 26-23, has asked the league to fire official Bill Vinovich and the rest of the officials who were in charge Sunday afternoon. The officials came under fire after missing a clear pass interference penalty late in the fourth quarter.

[GreenHornet]

They tried an all-female referee crew, but they kept throwing flags for plays that happened years ago.

After she throws the flag, she'll announce the penalty by saying: "Personal foul, number 55.....he knows what he did!"

[Drango]

NFL?

Sorry use to watch ‘em.

[hanamizu]

Maybe they need more referees.

---

Professional rugby manages to get by with 3 referees on the field (one ref and two line judges) and a guy in the TV booth. This is with 15 players on a side. Everything can be reviewed, foul play, a try (touchdown), off sides calls. The video replays don’t take up that much time and give the players a chance to get a drink, etc. since rugby plays pretty much non stop for each 40-minute half.

Maybe the NFL needs better refs rather than more.

[gas_dr]

This is quite a ridiculous statement -- you are literally suggesting a consipiarcy that would have required the game to...1. get to this point. 2. A foreknowledge that this play would be called 3. An intent to throw the ball to that side of the field so that those being paid off were in the position to make the call. 4. The defense would be in on it. 5. That everything was choreographed to get to this exact point. It is just not possible.

What is possible and I wrote it on a different thread is that it is common knowledge that the NFL is hiring officials without as much experience in order to meet a certain look. This is the reason that you see some officials like the female down judge promoted and other officials hired based on a quota system. Those who are not hired based on color are in fact hired based on relationships with officials in the league -- there are several father son generational progressions in the league.

I have officiated numerous sports at the highest level and I am going to tell you it is almost impossible to call a biased game. Yes there was the NBA referee, but he is on bad apple in a large bushel. At the end of the day, the officiating issue is a microcosm of the rest of America at the moment -- hiring a look over merit, hiring based on political correctness over competence.

[IrishBrigade]

‘The second pass was a touchdown without the hold/PI/helmet to helmet non-call’

yes, and since we’re speculating, we can say that had the defender merely looked for the ball as he is trained to do, he would have intercepted...

[Pilgrim's Progress]

I am still waiting for them to replay that last play at first base which Jim Joyce called safe which should have been an out resulting in a perfect game for Armando Galarraga of the Detroit Tigers. Now that was a travesty!

And I don’t care if Joyce did cry a river after the game.

[IrishBrigade]

‘Our country is on the verge of irreversibly going into the Socialist $hitter, and people here are worried about a “blown call” in NFL football.’

well, we could all go into the corner and wring our hands, if that would make you happy...

[Osage Orange]

Fire the people who decided you can't get replay...on fouls in the last whatever it is minutes.

That's insane....

[Pilgrim's Progress]

>>>They tried an all-female referee crew, but they kept throwing flags for plays that happened years ago.<<<

That makes me think of a great question for the Match game.

The female referee saw a foul take place, but instead of a flag she threw a . . .

[Midnitethecat]

Thanks for the laugh!

[Dilbert San Diego]

We can walk and chew gum.at the same time. We can be concerned about the future of our country and still have a vigorous discussion about NFL referees.

[Go Gordon]

Fire them and replay the game from that point. There is no point in even having refs if they are that bad.

Remember the George Brett pine tar game?

[phoneman08]

There were two officials in perfect position. They saw it, and it was obvious. So much so that I jumped out my seat as though the Saints had won. There simply is no good explanation for the no call.

But hey, the NFL has it’s east coast vs west coast game.

[KC_for_Freedom]

I think they made a mistake when they decided to allow calls to be reviewed but not every play. In this case no call was made so there was nothing to review.

There was a situation in a soccer match where one player head butted another and the official did not see it but they showed it on the giant screen and one of the linesmen stepped in and made the call so that the ref did not look like a complete horses ass.

That is what should have happened here. The play was a foul. It clearly would have affected the outcome, so that is the only reason I could see for ignoring it.

I have been a referee for soccer and I was always glad when I did not have to make a game changing call late in the game. Personally I prefer to have the better team win. With two teams so extremely close then the only thin the ref can and should do is make the right call. If I could see it, then they could too.

[JohnBrowdie]

that’s just freaking evil. purely freaking evil.

[Who is John Galt?]

There’s no point in watching any more, with the anti-American thugs and bad officiating.

Ditto! I made the same call on the NFL a couple of years ago, and on the Olympics after the US-Soviet basketball debacle in 1972...

[MichaelCorleone]

Can we get the names and faces of the referees in question who missed the call?

Their identities seem nowhere to be found.

[jjotto]

It was Bill Vinovich’s crew.

[ssaftler]

If your whole game depends on one play (much less a call) then you don’t deserve to win.

Tell that to Armando Galarraga, who lost a perfect game back in 2010 years ago because the 1st base umpire blew a call just as obvious as this one with 2 outs in the 9th. Too bad they didn't have replay then, or it would have taken about 5 seconds to reverse the call.

[MuttTheHoople]

The nevertrump, flagburning, gungrabbing babykilling NFL owners will probably give that Ref crew a RAISE. The NFL desperately needs the LA market, and the Rams and Chargers managed to get the voters to fork out the money for a multibillion dollar stadium. If the Saints had won, the Lambs would be still be playing before half-filled stadiums.