Replacements’ blown call clips the integrity of NFL’s brand
Sometimes a single image becomes so iconic that nothing can erase it. Attitudes are formed, events are set loose and history unexpectedly changes. Think of the Tunisian fruit vendor whose public self-immolation led to the fall of dictators in the Arab Spring.
Sporting events, such as the outlandish and endlessly replayed
Get regular refs back to work
conclusion of Monday night’s game between the Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks, hardly rise to such epic levels. All the same, the National Football League would be wise to heed the lessons of history. The integrity of its game, so carefully nurtured over decades, is now very much in question.
Since the NFL season opened three weeks ago, games have been embroiled in controversy over bungled calls by incompetent referees filling in for the regulars, whom the league has locked out in a labor dispute. The replacements have drawn howls of ridicule from players, coaches and broadcasters.
The controversy boiled over Monday night as a comedy of errors stole a win from the Packers and gave one to the Seahawks.
On the last play of a flag-filled game, Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, needing a touchdown, heaved a desperation pass toward a swarm of players tussling in the end zone. A Seahawk receiver illegally pushed one Packer out the way and leaped toward the overthrown pass, which was firm- ly grabbed by a second Packer defender. As both fell to the ground, the Seahawk managed to get an arm on the ball, without pulling it loose. Two refs converged on the spot and promptly gave conflicting signals: touchdown and touchback (marking an interception). Image created. Game over. And game on. Fury over the call raged into morning. No wonder. The Seahawks could squeak into the playoffs by one win and the Packers, a leading Super Bowl contender, could be similarly squeezed out. Add several more weeks of such outcomes, and the Super Bowl will be about as meaningful as the championship of the Lingerie League, which, as it happens, once fired one of the NFL fill-in refs for incompetence.
You can take your pick for who’s at fault in the labor dispute. The regular refs, who make an average of $150,000 a year for part-time work, want a raise. The NFL says OK but wants to convert the refs’ pensions, now life annuities, to 401(k)s and add three crews to improve officiating.
Regardless, the cost of any settlement will pale in comparison with the damage to the NFL’s brand if the replacement ref fiasco continues.
At this point, the NFL resembles other exceptionally successful businesses that became so arrogant, they were blind to peril.
Back in the 1990s, Intel, the gold standard in chipmaking, dismissed criticism of a flaw in its new Pentium chip as trivial. It eventually replaced the chips to save its reputation.
Arthur Andersen, once the gold standard in accounting, failed to see the risk in its association with Enron, the corrupt energy company. It was driven out of business.
The NFL is the gold standard in American sports, and other than game-fixing by gamblers, it's hard to imagine a bigger threat to the integrity of its game than outcomes dictated by incompetent referees.
For their own sake as well as for fans, the owners had best get the regular refs back on the field.