The Official NFL Thread: 2012-13 Season - Page 11

+1000. The interference call during the Steelers/Jets game was a perfect example. Called interference on #24, and he never touched the ball carrier who was also the intended receiver. The was no infraction on the play whatsoever.

Fucking Dallas.

beat the super bowl champs and then get owned by the fucking Seahawks. I really hate this team. If I see that rapping Jerry Jones commercial today I might break my tv and burn down a Papa John's.

Niners looking fierce!

The Greatest Show on Turf is back!

Peyton, this isn't the start I was expecting from you. Two interceptions already?

I have a sneaking suspicion that Peyton is done for.

Another one.

This may get ugly. Peyton needs to get it together.

If Michael Vick can throw a bunch of interceptions and still come back to win two games, I'm sure Peyton Manning can.

God this game is taking forever with all of the stoppages.

I have long been predisposed to seeing the NFL's side of things in many instances. Maybe it's a political thing, maybe it's a self-identity thing, but I always tend to believe the owners get a bad rap. While I'm certainly a lot more sympathetic to the players in the NFL (who don't have guaranteed contracts and pay an awful physical price for playing the game) than in other sports like MLB, I think much of the negative press about the owners is overstated.

I initially supported the Payton/WilliamsVilma/Saints suspensions, finding the bounty stuff to be really repugnant and thuggish.

I initially tended to support them in the lockout with officials. NFL referees are good at what they do, but it's a part time job and they make almost incomprehensible amounts of money for a part-time job. And I didn't believe NFL officials were that special that nobody else could do the job. (actually, I'm still not sure I believe that entirely)

But the NFL is really starting to look like shit in both of these affairs. The Saints thing is starting to look like an example-making overreaction based on shoddy evidence over a practice that appears to have been pretty common for a long time. The replacement refs are a real joke. The product on the field is very shoddy at the moment, and when it comes down to it, the amount of money they're fighting over is peanuts.

Roger Goodell is looking pretty douchey at the moment.

Al Michaels had the perfect analogy: The replacement referees are the substitute teachers who are being taken advantage of by the kids. I hope it's not going to take a serious injury to a player in a post-play fracas to get the NFL to realize it's being penny wise and pound foolish.

That game last night was unwatchable to me.

While I think the officiating is a joke, I think the player safety claims are bogus. These guys clearly don't know how to call PI or spot the ball and they're missing a lot of mundane stuff like holding, but they're not markedly worse at calling the roughing stuff that causes concussions and/or spinal injury. If anything, the worst call I've seen in that regard was flagging the Ravens for a roughing call on a perfect, legal, clean hit on Mike Vick. I guess they are losing some control of the game with stuff like the grabbing and a bit of post-whistle chippiness but if someone blows an ACL at the bottom of a pile because someone was pissed about a no-call and twists another guy's leg, that's hardly on the officials. Particularly in a league where, by the admissions of lots of former players, there have been player-driven bounty systems for years.