The NFL pissed off everyone with Rams-Chiefs ‘all-star’ refs
It exceeded the hype. The scoreboard was bursting, defenders’ bodies were flying everywhere and the balls were flying faster.
The flags were soaring, too.
The future-of-the-NFL showdown between the Chiefs and Rams on Monday night featured 105 points (fun!) and 21 accepted penalties (less fun!). The whistle problem was an ironic one after the NFL went out of its way to put its best stripes on the field, knowing the added attention the high-powered faceoff would command.
Officials were reassigned from other crews and shoehorned into Clete Blakeman’s team, which reportedly traded four of its members in the shuffle. The NFL tried to find the highest-performing refs in assembling a sort of all-star team of zebras. And like a haphazard all-star team, the built-in cohesion was missing and officials appeared to err on the side of throwing flags; there were 26 penalties called in all.
“Too many penalties, a lot of penalties in the first quarter,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid told reporters after their 54-51 loss, in which Kansas City was penalized 13 times and Los Angeles eight. “I don’t know about those, but they called them, and so we were going backwards when we needed to go forward and you don’t want to put yourself in a hole like that. We had too many penalties. Thirteen penalties overall and I think eight of them were in the first quarter, so we’ve got to do a better job of that.”
The teams were not thrilled with the quick-trigger flags. What about other NFL players?
“CANT EVEN PLAY DEFENSE,” wrote Houston’s Tyrann Mathieu.
“[Shaking my head] they just want points,” San Francisco’s Richard Sherman added.
How about other officials?
“I continue to read the term ‘all star’ as it relates to the crew tonight and am thoroughly disheartened that the NFL has chosen to take this action and give the perception that some officials are ‘stars’ and some are not worthy,” former longtime official Terry McAulay wrote.
ESPN reported Jerome Boger was one of the ones originally scheduled to officiate the game only to be switched out, a public slight that officials as a whole surely do not appreciate.
there were some truly bullshit penalties amongst those called
and I still don't get this "hit on a defenseless receiver" nonsense and the way it is being interpreted
as I recall, that rule was put into place initially to keep receivers who went up for passes and didn't make the catch from being obliterated ... and in that sense, it is a perfectly reasonable call
what I don't get now is how a receiver who has made the catch can't be tackled ... wtf are defenders supposed to do?
if the crew on MNF was what amounts to an NFL all star zebra crew, the best at their positions, then our worst fears have been realized because their flag tossing shit show was atrocious