Referees are turning the NFL into the No Fun League (1 Viewer)

[Dancing Bear]

The refereeing last night [Philadelphia Eagles versus Dallas Cowboys] made me sick!

Walt Coleman and Co. made several questionable calls to my point of view, but the WORST one was the Unsportsmanlike Conduct 15 yard penalty on Asante Samuel. He and Marion Barber were CLEARLY having fun with each other both physically and verbally, after the 5 yard reception. They each chided one another and slapped each others helmets and such ... Samuel did absolutely nothing to warrant that ridiculous penalty. They were simply having fun! ARGH!

 

[B-Deep]

The refereeing last night [Philadelphia Eagles versus Dallas Cowboys] made me sick!

Walt Coleman and Co. made several questionable calls to my point of view, but the WORST one was the Unsportsmanlike Conduct 15 yard penalty on Asante Samuel. He and Marion Barber were CLEARLY having fun with each other both physically and verbally, after the 5 yard reception. They each chided one another and slapped each others helmets and such ... Samuel did absolutely nothing to warrant that ridiculous penalty. They were simply having fun! ARGH!

Yeah ya know..when i first saw samuel standing over him i thought it was a good call, then barber slapped at his helmet, not hard though, and I thought, crap are they gonna flag barber?

Then when I saw how it all concluded I thought the penalty was unwarranted. Seemed like it was all in good fun.

 

[Ladsud]

Dont blame the refs, blame there bosses.

 

[Ghost Rider]

The refereeing last night [Philadelphia Eagles versus Dallas Cowboys] made me sick!

Walt Coleman and Co. made several questionable calls to my point of view, but the WORST one was the Unsportsmanlike Conduct 15 yard penalty on Asante Samuel. He and Marion Barber were CLEARLY having fun with each other both physically and verbally, after the 5 yard reception. They each chided one another and slapped each others helmets and such ... Samuel did absolutely nothing to warrant that ridiculous penalty. They were simply having fun! ARGH!

Horrible call. But I am sure refs are told to flag anything that appears like taunting, so really, it is the league's fault.

 

[G-Money]

The refereeing last night [Philadelphia Eagles versus Dallas Cowboys] made me sick!

Walt Coleman and Co. made several questionable calls to my point of view, but the WORST one was the Unsportsmanlike Conduct 15 yard penalty on Asante Samuel. He and Marion Barber were CLEARLY having fun with each other both physically and verbally, after the 5 yard reception. They each chided one another and slapped each others helmets and such ... Samuel did absolutely nothing to warrant that ridiculous penalty. They were simply having fun! ARGH!

Horrible call. But I am sure refs are told to flag anything that appears like taunting, so really, it is the league's fault.

That call was absurd yesterday. I do think that ref had a "hair trigger" on that flag. It's fine to uphold the integrity of the rule, BUT the refs need to do a better job of interpreting what is actually going on. They blew that one.

 

[mbuehner]

Dont blame the refs, blame there bosses.

Exactly. They are doing what they have been instructed to do. Go talk to the commish and the owners.

 

[gnarboots11]

I think in all professional sports referees, umpires, and officials should be anonomous. Meaning, we should never ever know their names, they should be known as referee #1, #2, etc. and they should wear a face mask of some sort so we do not know what they look like. It is obviously beneficial to a ref, ump, or official to get face time on television, especially, in the NBA. The more these people get their names said on television the more they become a household name the more money they can make, writing books, doing interviews etc. it may sound ridiculous, but it's clearly obvious that officials get a bonus by making more calls even bad calls just to get on television and have their name be repeated over and over by the broadcasters. The benefit to make calls needs to be eliminated because even if the official doesn't think he/she is trying to get face time on TV, subconsciously they will. Also, by making officials anonomous they will be more willing to call a game straight up as oppose to listen to the home crowd yell at them.

 

[fatness]

Dont blame the refs, blame there bosses.

But I am sure refs are told to flag anything that appears like taunting, so really, it is the league's fault.

They are doing what they have been instructed to do. Go talk to the commish and the owners.

 

[The_Man]

This will probably make me sound like an old man, but the officiating this year has - for the first time - diminished my enjoyment of the NFL. The game has become too much like two-hand touch. Just send everyone out for a pass every play, and the chances are that you'll either complete two of them to earn another first down, get lucky and connect on a long bomb, or draw a flag. Pass interference is bad enough, but I am so sick of seeing a team make a third down stop, only to find that there's been a flag for illegal contact downfield and an automatic first down, thrown on the opposite side of the field from where the play was taking place.

Defense and even the running game are taking a huge backseat this year to the QBs who are passing for 300 yards with a near 70 percent completion rate every game. I'm tired of the two-hand touch football.

 

[JamesTheScot]

Watch the NBA sometimes. NBA now stands for - Never make B..... B.... Basketball People AccountableYeah, that's it. The desire for pure individuality in the NBA at the cost of everything else has killed it as the premiere American pro sport. To me, as a fan, if I am paying good hard earned money for tickets to a game, I don't want to see a player on my home team in a losing effort to be smiling and joking around at all. Smile when you win. You have have the NFL like it is now, or you can have it more like the NBA ( where the inmates control the asylum) Maybe I just got too damn old to understand the players in these sports nowGekko

I'm in that camp too.I remember when the actual playing of football was fun. Now, if you can't talk smack after a sack when down by 30 points or pull your debit card out and buy hotdogs for the mascots as your end-zone celebration, the game isn't fun anymore.Am I over-stating that? I don't think so.If playing the game WITHOUT drawing attention to yourself after the whistle blows isn't fun but playing the game WHILE drawing attention to yourself after the whistle blows is fun, then I must conclude that the "fun" in the game comes not from the game, but from what occurs after the whistle is blown.In line with that thinking, perhaps we should just eliminate the game itself and just award points based on dead ball antics. After all, if that's where all the fun is, and this is a recreational endeavor intended to be fun, we should eliminate the superflous part that had nothing to do with the fun.

 

[Dancing Bear]

Good grief.

Those two athletes were exhibiting GOOD SPORTSMANSHIP last night. They were competing at the highest level against one another and then congratulating each other. That in no way detracts from the game to me.

Do you seriously feel things like the Lambeau Leap detracts from the game of football? How about Jerome Bettis' patented shuffle? How about the deodorant by Chad Ochocinco?

We only get a few minutes out of every 3 hours with "real" action, and maybe if we are lucky we get 8-10 highlights a game [scores, sacks, int's, long passes, etc.] Do you really feel that none of these should be celebrated?

This is not even close to the NBA.