Are Replacement Referees Putting the Quality of the Game in Danger?

“I actually overheard one of the refs saying he only refereed glorified high school games,” said Giants receiver Victor Cruz when asked about the replacement refs. “I don’t even know what that means.”

    
    One of the biggest topics this off-season, pre-season, and regular season so far have been the replacement officials. They have gotten better as the weeks have progressed, but many players and fans are disgruntled with the quality of officiating. Is the NFL putting the quality and integrity of the game so many people love at risk? Many people think so, and are crossing their fingers hoping the lockout between the referees and the NFL ends very soon.
    The NFL and owners have had a 'take it or leave it' attitude with the referees since the lockout began. The reasons for the lockout seem shocking to me. One of the things the owners want the referees to do is work for the NFL full time. The problem with that is that most of the officials have other sources of income, and they would be expected to give those jobs up to serve solely the NFL. The owners also want the referees to take a 16 percent pay cut on top of losing their outside income. The icing on the cake to me is that the owners then want to eliminate the referees' pensions and replace them with 401k plans which would be linked to the stock market.
    It's no wonder the regular referees don't want to come back to work for the NFL. The owners have not budged on their terms and there are no new talks scheduled between the NFL and its referees. This means that the replacement officials could be around for quite some time to come.
    While the replacement referees have gotten better over the weeks, there is still a big lack of experience that leads to a lot of issues on the field. There were many things wrong with the officiating in Week 1. Some of these things were minor - such as saying the wrong name or number on a penalty, or the prolonged huddles the replacement referees had to discuss a call. Then there were some calls, and even some no calls, that were more controversial.
    The first notable bad call came on opening night. There was a no call by the replacement refs that went very much in favor of the Dallas Cowboys. On a 3rd and Goal Eli Manning threw a pass to Victor Cruz in the end zone. Dallas Cowboys cornerback Orlando Scandrick looked to be holding Cruz on the play - even the announcers of the game pointed this out. This would have meant a flag for defensive holding, which would have then given the Giants a fresh set of downs. This could have meant a Giants touchdown, resulting in a 7-0 lead instead of a 3-0 lead. A touchdown rather than a field goal would have been a big difference in momentum that early in the game. Of course this is all hypothetical, but the no call has been criticized still to this day.
    Another bad call came in Monday night's game between the Ravens and Bengals. Instead of a no call on an obvious penalty, this time there was a flag thrown where it shouldn't have been. The down was 2nd and 7 and Joe Flacco threw a short pass to his receiver, Anquan Boldin. Bengals cornerback Leon Hall blanketed the receiver, and made a great play on the ball to force a 3rd down. The replacement referees saw something different. A flag was thrown for defensive pass interference, giving the Ravens a 1st down and extending the drive.
    The last game I would like to site is the game between the Seahawks and Cardinals. The Seahawks were on a potential game winning drive with less than two minutes remaining in the game. An injury timeout was charged to the Seahawks when wide receiver Doug Baldwin went down with what would later be called a tooth injury. This was their final timeout. Later in the drive the replacement referees awarded Seattle an extra timeout when coach Pete Carroll called for one. The logic behind this was that when Baldwin went down the play on the field was an incomplete pass, which would have stopped the clock and not forced Seattle to use its final timeout.
    Unfortunately, this is not what the rulebook states. Ultimately, the NFL dodged a bullet with this call. Fortunately for the league the Arizona Cardinals defense held firm to give them a 20-16 win. One can only imagine the controversy that would've arisen if the Seahawks had won a game where they were given a fourth timeout.
    These were just a few of the issues seen with the replacement referees in Week 1. Other than those major calls there were also a lot of missed calls for holding and pass interference. Granted, even the regular referees miss these calls from time to time but the fact that these are replacement officials does nothing but add fuel to the fire. The lack of experience from the replacement officials have caused them to be under a microscope for some time now and they will likely stay under the microscope until the regular officials return. When will this be? It's hard to tell, but if the quality of officiating does not improve the NFL could see itself lose many of its fans.