The refs really blew it. Not the real refs though.

It seems as if I was the only person in the country who didn’t see the controversial last play of the Monday Night Football. But that’s okay because fallout was in no short supply from the Seattle Seahawks win over Green Bay that maybe shouldn’t have been.

Here is a fairly simple explanation of what happened from an Associated Press piece published by The Washington Post. Except it really was not all that elementary my dear Watson, especially when explained by the likes of Sports Illustrated’s Peter King. Oh, and just to be perfectly perspicuous, that is NOT Peter King the Republican congressman from New York whom Reuter’s magnificent media writer Jack Shafer once referred to as “an exploding carbuncle masquerading as a member of Congress.”

 

If you somehow managed to miss the root of this controversy — so all-encompassing that even the President “tweeted” about it — it stems from a labor-management issue as us left-leaning, Red fellow travelers like to call it. Those of the evil rich NFL Owner Class locked out the regular referees and apparently replaced them with just about anyone who has worn a zebra-striped shirt. That is not so far from the mark if the statement by Mitch Mortaza is true. He is the founder and president of the Lingerie Football League. Yes, there is a LFL although I’ve yet to see a game and will probably need a condition of hyper insomnia before I ever watch such a spectacle. Nonetheless, Mortaza says some of the current NFL substitute referees had worked for the lingerie league but were allegedly let go because they didn’t make the cut. I have to wonder if the refs in that league also wear lingerie? I really don’t want to know the answer though.

Blown calls happen all the time in the NFL and even the most seasoned “Zebras” are not immune from making one. The fact is, however,  that these are substitute refs, “scabs” in the language of the older hard-line union members, whose train wreck of a call may have brought this whole debacle to a head. Oh, and speaking of millions, it was reported today that some $300 million in bets on the game changed hands. I don’t really want to repeat myself, but do you know what I could do with $300-freaking-million? People are pissing away $300 million that hinged on one incompetent call while who know how many others, myself among them, live week-to-week. What a world, huh Bubba?

Such are the type of calamities that make the conspiracy nuts who already think professional or even college games are fixed wonder if the “fix” was really in on this Monday night madness. So many amazing games with stunning turnarounds have been showcased on Monday night games that it is a target-rich environment for the conspiratorially-inclined.

And so, to paraphrase the immortal words of the ever-amazing Vice President Joe Biden, this was “a big f***ing deal.”  It was answered by the NFL by a confusing statement that basically said: “Yeah, the call sucked but so what?” So there we have it. Another football game. Another blown call.