[jospehm20]

This bad call was very high profile but there were others that went against Seattle and helped GB. Who knows how the game would have gone if everything was called properly? All the games I saw this weekend had bad calls and bad no calls in them. As much as I griped about the NFL refs last season, the NFL needs to get the regular refs back ASAP. If they do not, I can see a franchise player getting injured because these replacement refs cannot control the games. I wonder how happy the sports books are with this situation?

[onyx]

I wonder how happy the sports books are with this situation?

LOL. I haven't thought to check the betting lines against the outcomes of the games, have you?

[Alberta's Child]

You make a good point there. The players and fans can complain all they want, but this situation will persist until one or both of the following happens: (1) fans start tuning out of the NFL, and/or (2) people stop placing bets on NFL games.

Item (2) is particularly important because once that happens, the NFL has effectively become the equivalent of professional wrestling. Personally, I don't care all that much either way -- because I think the NFL game is so contrived that it may as well be WWF wrestling anyway.

[pegleg]

wonder how happy the sports books are with this situation?

Forget the sports books. What about all the Green Bay Packer DST owners in Fantasy Football? :-)

[sargon]

There have been plenty of bad calls before this year, as well. I don't see that the quality of the officiating has gone down that much.

A regular officiating crew could have made this same mistake. It's just a bad call. They happen. Good teams overcome them and it all evens out over time...