Bernie: Blame for officiating debacle lies with NFL owners

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The Dude
Bernie Miklasz
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/ ... f6878.html

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The shouting continues in the aftermath of Monday’s debacle in Seattle, and the stench won’t fade anytime soon. Incompetent officiating ruined an NFL game, with Seattle being handed a win that it didn’t earn, and Green Bay getting burned with a loss it didn’t deserve.

What we saw Monday night was one of most disgraceful moments in professional sports history.

A lot of folks are ripping NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, as they should. Leaders are supposed to lead, and Goodell previously earned respect for never hesitating to take charge. And he should do so now.

But I’m more disgusted by the NFL owners. Goodell works for them. He’s their employee. He has been granted a large measure of independence to exercise his authority in a bold manner. (See: Bountygate.) But if the owners wanted to settle this irresponsible and embarrassing lockout of the NFL’s real officials, it would be done. Goodell and his lead negotiator (Jeff Pash) would make a deal. But that hasn’t happened, at least not yet.

So what we have here is a remarkable display of ownership arrogance, and the flexing of muscle, just to show who is in charge. These people are so intoxicated by their wealth, power and privilege that they’d prefer squashing the real officials, even if it means compromising the integrity of the competition, damaging the NFL brand, or undermining their own franchises.

The real officials are nothing more than hired help to the elitist NFL owners. And the owners aren’t willing to let the hired help win a dispute over money; that would represent a symbolic weakening of the owners’ supremacy. These hopelessly bigheaded people, so used to getting their way, won’t back down.

To NFL owners, the quality of the on-field product is a secondary concern. The adherence to professional standards is a secondary concern. The players’ safety is a secondary concern.

And the fans are of no concern, none whatsoever. The fans will pay top dollar for tickets and they will buy media broadcast packages. And if the owners want to give the fans an inferior game and less value for their dollars, they’ll do it.

This is about power, and ego and control. The league commissioner and the owners believe that they are bulletproof, untouchable, and safe from afflictions that hurt other leagues. This is the NFL, damn it. The most popular league in America. The most successful sports league in the world. A league that expects groveling from the TV networks, the media, civic leaders, and fans.

The stadiums are filled. Financially impoverished cities will build new stadiums on demand, just to please these football kings. The TV boys are throwing billions at them. Most of the media will settle into the usual role of lapdogs. This league will do whatever it wants to do.

Goodell will make a deal with the refs when the owners insist on it. But the amazing thing is, these billionaires don’t seem to care that their own teams could lose games and miss the playoffs because of egregiously bad officiating. At least not to this point, anyway.

But you just wait. Just wait, and you will eventually hear the caterwauling, and the screaming at Goodell. It will happen when the slop hits the fan, and individual owners stop counting money in time to realize that their teams were victimized by the league’s decision to turn custody of the games over to a frightened bunch of overmatched, overwhelmed zebra-striped lightweights.

The NFL is a monolith; as an entity the league has layers of muscle. It is difficult to damage this league in a way that would reduce the long-term popularity and money being paid out in the TV deals.

The situation is a little more complex than that. Each NFL owner has a home base, a market, and customers. To some extent, every NFL owner has to answer to his coaches, GM and players. And those personal relationships are important to most NFL owners.

So on the local level, and at the team headquarters, what does an owner say? How does he respond when a coach or team leader asks him why they're putting their heart and soul (and health) on the line to compete in games that are being turned onto clown shows by fake officials? I don't see how an owner can look the coach, the players, in the eye. I don't know what Mark Murphy, the Packers' CEO could possibly tell head coach Mike McCarthy and QB Aaron Rodgers in trying to explain or justify Monday's loss.

But for now, the owners and their commissioner remain entrenched.

The hired help will not win ... even if it means the NFL losing its integrity.

Tuesday, the NFL "Officiating Department" issued its finding after taking a look at the maddening, inexcusable breakdown of protocol and common sense in Seattle.

And the NFL concluded that no visual evidence existed for overturning the call. The NFL supports the decision to let the on-field ruling stand.

We've learned something else. These people are not only haughty and self-important, they're also suffering from some extreme vision problems.

Apparently, this really is a case of the blind (Goodell) leading the blind (the owners.)

Where have you gone, Pete Rozelle? At times like this you really appreciate the standard of excellence established by the late, legendary NFL commissioner who built this league. You wonder what Pete Rozelle, the best commissioner in sports history, would be thinking now.

"I've never seen the NFL on such thin ice," said our town's Dan Dierdorf, who is in his 42nd NFL year as a Hall of Fame player, then broadcaster. "Pete Rozelle must be spinning in his grave."
 

RamFan503

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Re: Bernie: Blame for officiating debacle lies with NFL owne

While I agree that the owners need to quit fucking the game and all who love it, imagine... Bernie blaming the owners for something. Whodathunk? :sly:

BTW - Did anyone catch the NFL Network coverage of the shitty calls vs ESPN? I wanted to puke. According to the NFLN, the replacements made the only call and got it right after replay. "They are doing their job." :sick:
 

Stranger

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Re: Bernie: Blame for officiating debacle lies with NFL owne

OMG, I think this is the first time I've ever agreed with Bernie.
 

Thordaddy

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Re: Bernie: Blame for officiating debacle lies with NFL owne

Nice union hall rant there by Bernie, but the dispute is not over who the boss is,just isn't . The NFL doesn't want to have to guarantee season long employment for referees who FUCK calls like the Tuck Rule nor assume the risk of a pension fund.
If it was JUST about who's the boss ,it'd be over now.

Bernie addresses NONE of the disputes, just voices his histrionics, but BIG SURPRISE, Bernie being a provocateur? NEVER :roll:
 

Stranger

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Re: Bernie: Blame for officiating debacle lies with NFL owne

I agree with Bernie, this is about power, not money, as the money the ref want, as a percentage of total revenues, is trivial.
 

Thordaddy

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Re: Bernie: Blame for officiating debacle lies with NFL owne

interference said:
I agree with Bernie, this is about power, not money, as the money the ref want, as a percentage of total revenues, is trivial.
And so you buy into the meme that billionaires are going to suffer this much disdain and ridicule over "trivial money".

Nah they ,contrary to your impressions, all have a vision of how they want this game to proceed and the concession on employment and the 401 K are about responsible ownership/ stewardship of their league.

It's an age old struggle and peoples attitudes going in determine which way they are going to point the finger of blame ,ME ? Well IMO the refs. are equally to blame. Most of these guys aren't doing this for the money they're doing it because they are fans of the game and they are letting it go down the same drain as much as anyone imagines ownership is.

Taking sides here is silly,silly silly
 

Stranger

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Re: Bernie: Blame for officiating debacle lies with NFL owne

Thordaddy said:
interference said:
I agree with Bernie, this is about power, not money, as the money the ref want, as a percentage of total revenues, is trivial.
And so you buy into the meme that billionaires are going to suffer this much disdain and ridicule over "trivial money".

Nah they ,contrary to your impressions, all have a vision of how they want this game to proceed and the concession on employment and the 401 K are about responsible ownership/ stewardship of their league.

It's an age old struggle and peoples attitudes going in determine which way they are going to point the finger of blame ,ME ? Well IMO the refs. are equally to blame. Most of these guys aren't doing this for the money they're doing it because they are fans of the game and they are letting it go down the same drain as much as anyone imagines ownership is.

Taking sides here is silly,silly silly
Tell me then, what is the owners' "vision" ?

By the way, another term for "responsible ownership/stewardship" is plain-ol' elitist theivery, which has been spun any different number of ways throughout history. This is no different.

Further, how is it relevant what the motivations of the refs is? They have helped this business grow, and now they just want a fair piece of the much larger pie. Why should only the owners benefit exclusivel from this revenue growth?

As far as taking sides, you are clearly taking the side of ownership. Damn, Marx has infiltrated every aspect of the working classes mentality.
 

Ram Quixote

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Re: Bernie: Blame for officiating debacle lies with NFL owne

Thordaddy said:
interference said:
I agree with Bernie, this is about power, not money, as the money the ref want, as a percentage of total revenues, is trivial.
And so you buy into the meme that billionaires are going to suffer this much disdain and ridicule over "trivial money".

Nah they ,contrary to your impressions, all have a vision of how they want this game to proceed and the concession on employment and the 401 K are about responsible ownership/ stewardship of their league.

It's an age old struggle and peoples attitudes going in determine which way they are going to point the finger of blame ,ME ? Well IMO the refs. are equally to blame. Most of these guys aren't doing this for the money they're doing it because they are fans of the game and they are letting it go down the same drain as much as anyone imagines ownership is.

Taking sides here is silly,silly silly
But the actual point being made by Bernie is that the replacement refs were a huge smelly pile of dung laid in the ballroom of the NFL's primetime dance. And the lockout wasn't even necessary. Why would these refs ever want to not officiate the games?

The NFL created the situation in which they had to come up with replacements. The trainers, like retired ref Markbreit, told the NFL they wouldn't be able to get the replacements ready so what did Goodell and the owners do? They found somebody else to train them. We can see how well that worked.
 

Thordaddy

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Re: Bernie: Blame for officiating debacle lies with NFL owne

Ram Quixote said:
Thordaddy said:
interference said:
I agree with Bernie, this is about power, not money, as the money the ref want, as a percentage of total revenues, is trivial.
And so you buy into the meme that billionaires are going to suffer this much disdain and ridicule over "trivial money".

Nah they ,contrary to your impressions, all have a vision of how they want this game to proceed and the concession on employment and the 401 K are about responsible ownership/ stewardship of their league.

It's an age old struggle and peoples attitudes going in determine which way they are going to point the finger of blame ,ME ? Well IMO the refs. are equally to blame. Most of these guys aren't doing this for the money they're doing it because they are fans of the game and they are letting it go down the same drain as much as anyone imagines ownership is.

Taking sides here is silly,silly silly
But the actual point being made by Bernie is that the replacement refs were a huge smelly pile of dung laid in the ballroom of the NFL's primetime dance. And the lockout wasn't even necessary. Why would these refs ever want to not officiate the games?

The NFL created the situation in which they had to come up with replacements. The trainers, like retired ref Markbreit, told the NFL they wouldn't be able to get the replacements ready so what did Goodell and the owners do? They found somebody else to train them. We can see how well that worked.

AND of course the alternative of going into the season without a contract when a strike/ walkout could have shut the season down was not adequate reason for the owners to decide to take the avenue they did.

Here's the deal ,we can go round and round representing the "sides" of this conflict and I'm fine with that, but to take the step of deciding I am, or Bernie is the all knowing arbiter of blame is arrogant and predetermined by attitudes we carry before the fact, Bernies column is chock full of emotional characterization of the owners where he projects his POV upon a negotiation he has limited knowledge of and where he ONCE again indicates his proclivity towards class envy. He is in no way a journalist, IMO he's a race baiting poverty pimp, although he doesn't use race here ,I've seen him use it, he's prone to taking sides in order to curry favor to gain access, he's a puke, but that's still JMO.

He lead the charge against Martz UNTILL Martz showed up at his dad's funeral, and suddenly he reversed course and attempted to moderate the rhetoric about the guy, but the lynch mob was already assembled and he no longer had any effect.

Make NO mistake the brass in the NFL monitor the public mood and Bernie knows it and he uses it to his purposes.

He learned to hate Linehan because the guy wouldn't let the press into closed practices and he hounded the guy relentlessly until practice was opened to them.

I'll stay neutral on this, even though I have a decidedly management bias, I refuse to take sides because I KNOW my knowledge will always be too limited to make a truly informed pronouncement, unless I get to sit in I'll always be depending upon second hand info at best, NAH I don't need to take a side, I'm a flea on this dog.

I would rather we HAD games to see even with the shitty reffing than no football and besides the originals weren't as much better as some want us to believe.

Instant replay was instituted to address the mistakes they were being "outed on" in it's inception.
IMA chill and watch some football, get upset sometimes and then chill again.

I will say this though, what a bunch of self serving hypocrites the NFLPA is, crossing the imaginary picket line, gimme a break, it always comes down to whose Ox is being gored.
 

Ram Quixote

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Re: Bernie: Blame for officiating debacle lies with NFL owne

I really doubt the refs would have gone on strike. They know that would piss off the players and fans, the demographic they need the support from. And truthfully, who would support a ref strike? Not me. For the same reason I don't support the lockout now.
 

Thordaddy

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Re: Bernie: Blame for officiating debacle lies with NFL owne

Ram Quixote said:
I really doubt the refs would have gone on strike. They know that would piss off the players and fans, the demographic they need the support from. And truthfully, who would support a ref strike? Not me. For the same reason I don't support the lockout now.

And you have the luxury of not having to bet billions on that POV, the owners don't and just the fact that the refs unionized is adequate cause to assure there will always be suspicion amongst the sides.

Again, the replacements are making mistakes but thus far only marginally worse than the "real guys" make. Admittedly the one Monday Night was an abomination, but we've seen abominations before. If there were a long standing redskin fan here I could call to mind a catch by Mel Grey (STL FB Cards) that would conjur a lot of curse words.

Even there your opinion depends upon reading tea leaves in a subjective way.

MY OPINION is strident side taking is lending power to people you might regret having empowered. IF the Refs win their leadership will be emboldened, it's even been posited here by a poster that they need to double their demands in view of that call and next negotiating MAY result in a strike even mid season, if the owners "win" the quality of reffing could suffer because the market would compete for the better refs somewhere else.

JMO my info is incomplete so I won't act as if it was since I don't get a vote I Don't have to take a side.

Question: Are you going to quit watching?

If not THEN you are desirous of NFL football regardless the quality of officiating and IMO THAT is indicative of most people, and I Don't think it's hurting ratings, hell I think some people are going to tune in now that wouldn't ordinarily because they want to see the train wreck they are hearing everyone from the janitor of their school to the Lord High President bitchin about.

Gotta go, good give and take but IMA frying chicken for a school fundraiser, so later.