‘CALL’-TIME LOW
With Pack-'Hawks on tap again, 'Fail Mary' ref says he's battling PTSD
Lance Easley — better known, to his horror, as the overwhelmed replacement NFL referee who called a touchdown on 2012’s infamous “Fail Mary” play between the Packers and Seahawks — says he has been traumatized and rendered suicidal from the fallout of the poorly officiated fling.
Easley comes into view this week as the Packers and Seahawks prepare to renew hostilities in Sunday’s NFC Championship Game, even as the sport’s fulltime refs face added scrutiny from two consecutive weeks of arguable gameswinging Cowboys rulings. And the picture isn’t pretty.
The 55yearold told Yahoo Sports in a revealing interview he was diagnosed last year with posttraumatic stress disorder. He has waded through a severe bout of depression, recurring panic attacks and the terrifying creep of suicidal thoughts.
“It’s almost like a funeral,” he told Yahoo. “I felt like I didn’t want to be here anymore. I never acted on it. It was horrible to have those thoughts. I hated having those thoughts.”
Easley told the website he’s been in and out of intensive psychiatric facilities in California. His career at Bank of America is ruined — he’s on a doctorordered medical leave — and in September he separated from his wife of 28 years.
“Right now I’m just trying to keep my life together,” he said. “It’s really difficult.”
On the infamous play, with the host Seahawks trailing 127, Packers safety M.D. Jennings and Seahawks wideout Golden Tate leaped and simultaneously came down with Russell Wilson’s Hail Mary fling. Easley, who had topped out as a referee at California junior college football and Division III basketball before the NFL’s regular referees were locked out prior to the season, looked down at the mosh pit and threw his two arms up, signaling a gamewinning touchdown.
Even now, after the onslaught of complaints and threats from aggrieved fans and gamblers, after his two years of emotional and psy chological torture, he insists he made the proper call.
“Nobody died,” Easley said. “There were no laws broken. It wasn’t scandalous. There was no sex tape. I didn’t do anything wrong. It just happened to be a contentious call right when everything was spiraling out of control.”
Heavily scrutinized referee incidents such as Dez Bryant’s highlightreel catchbutnotacatch Sunday (against the Packers) won’t redeem him, Easley knows. He’s putting his faith in God and his psychological treatment to lift him from the depths.
“I know I’ll recover,” he said. “I know it. It’s just going to take time to get through it.”