The Worst Call in NFL History

One of these ref’s calls doesn’t belong.

And I think we all know which one that is.

Words can’t even describe how ridiculous this fiasco of a situation truly is. This is a first in NFL history as there is a blatant push off of a defender, followed by an interception where M.D. Jennings has two hands on the ball, which all leads to a Golden Tate touchdown from a man who initially had one hand on the ball and actually took it off the ball on the way down to the ground… wait, what? To put it in Aaron’s words, it was awful. To put it TJ’s words… well, I can’t really do that. I’ve often been on the side that these men haven’t been doing as bad of a job as people like to say and that they just have faced constant scrutiny because they are under a very heated spotlight. Not this time. And this isn’t about the referees being replacement refs; this is about a crew of football referees, at any level with any sort of experience whatsoever, making a horrid call that will now go down in YouTube and league history for the wrong reason. They should now officially be stereotyped as a joke. This might just be the breaking point that forces these owners to swallow their pride, get a deal done with the regular refs and protect the esteemed NFL shield from any more mortification.

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Stropolo: The Ref That Cheered

 

Just when you thought officiating from the NFL replacement referees couldn’t get any worse, one referee added a new storyline that only hurts their current image.

When the New Orleans Saints and Carolina Panthers played this last Sunday, Brian Stropolo, a replacement referee, got to do what he really wanted in watching “his team” play rather than determining the outcome of the game. After the league discovered multiple photos (including the one above) on Stropolo’s Facebook page that clearly showed him as a Saints fan and even tailgating at a preseason game this year, they quickly removed him from the game. His Facebook account has since been disabled.

He is currently under full investigation by the league and will be unable to return as an official until the league decides what action to take.

Now, I understand that 99.99 percent of referees are sports fans and most likely possess a passion for their respective sport, giving them the reasoning to start this career path. It would be foolish to think every single one of these men are completely unbiased and have as much emotion as Hayden Christensen on a movie set.

However, what should be expected from these men is to be smart and understand they are in the spotlight. Just as is the case with any athlete, actor or politician, you are always under scrutiny. If you mess up and get caught, the consequences are not your only punishment; you must also face the media’s scolding.

In Stropolo’s case, he shouldn’t be chastised for liking a sports team – again, he is not alone in his profession. The fact that he had many photos of himself in Saints gear and at Saints games is the truly baffling part of this fiasco. He should have realized we live in a society where anything and everything put online can somehow, someway be found by the millions of bloggers and tweeters that inundate the social media world. All the man had to do was keep those photos to himself since he was an NFL referee for the 2012 NFL season.

But he didn’t. And now he will be the face of a group of replacement referees that are struggling to live up to the standards left by the previous referees holding out for more money. Hopefully all the “Likes” and Comments” made it worth his permanently tainted image.

 

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