Having Second Thoughts …

Everyone was talking about it. Everyone.

I saw it and I just couldn’t believe it. Did this just happen right before my eyes? Yeah … yeah it did.  A mugging. A theft. A crime of robbery in front of hundreds of people and no one could do anything but watch.

Victim: M.D. Jennings of the Green Bay Packers.

Perp:  Golden Tate of the Seattle Seahawks

Accomplice: The Ref.

Crime: They stole the game.

Now even if you don’t follow the NFL and you don’t know football rules, most of you know that when someone catches the ball and lands on the floor, no one else can grab the ball away from you underneath the pile of football players and then claim that he had the ball all along. This is not basketball. Steals are not allowed here. But apparently that is what happened in last night’s Monday Night Football game where the Green Bay Packers lost to the Seattle Seahawks in the final seconds, 14-12.

And when I mean final seconds that’s exactly what it was … final seconds. This is when disaster happened.

 

 

The Seahawks quarterback launched the ball up in the air, down into the end zone, A Hail Mary to win the game, and it was caught … by a Green Bay Packer.

So what happened? Why wasn’t the game over and Packers celebrating?

The refs. The refs. The refs.

You know when you see someone make a bad decision, I mean a horrible, terrible, gut-wrenching, bad decision and you can’t do anything to change their minds? Yeah … that’s how the Green Bay Packers coach felt. That’s pretty much how all the Green Bay Packers felt.

But nothing could be done. The whistles were blown.

I imagine referees get it wrong every once in a while. There’s a margin of error when calling a game. But when you see in instant replay and have time to think about it and reflect … c’mon now. C’mon.

But these were not ordinary veteran referees with massive amounts of NFL experience … these were replacement refs. Replacements! Apparently the NFL referees have some sort of labor dispute and went on strike. The NFL makes like a gazillion dollars and they can’t spare three million to pay the referees. Now don’t get me wrong three million dollars is a lot of money for people like you and me, but for the NFL? That’s change. Change.

I think after this game and the Patriots game, where another bad call robbed a team from a win, the NFL may be having second thoughts. I imagine the teams are having many thoughts. These last-second major-decisions are the reason why you would need a regular NFL ref.

I don’t know … I’m just saying …

But in retrospect, I guess M.D. Jennings could have just knocked the ball down when going up for the Hail Mary pass, you know like a defensive man should, and this whole theft could have been avoided.

Maybe …

Advertisement