I'm disgusted with this

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-X-

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The rule is the rule. Nobody could expect to have a rule that was partially based on how hard the hit was. You can't have subjective rules IMO. He lost control of himself like so many other Rams did. I don't ever want to see the Rams play like that again. This is getting so friggin' old.
Nah. Unintentional is unintentional - no matter what the context of the situation may be.
Think Brady or Manning gets ejected from a game for being mad and inadvertently smacking a ref who snuck into the picture?

Nah
 

jrry32

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Alan

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X with his take:
Nah. Unintentional is unintentional - no matter what the context of the situation may be.
Think Brady or Manning gets ejected from a game for being mad and inadvertently smacking a ref who snuck into the picture?

Nah
I see your point of view but I just don't agree with it. You're also bringing in another issue, referee favoritism, which I agree with but I don't see how it pertains to this discussion. You shouldn't be swinging your arm around IMO. Reckless behavior causes bad outcomes. I saw the replay and granted my eyes suck but that was much more than just casually pointing like Fisher made it out to be.

Anyway, it was a horribly refereed game. As usual.
 

-X-

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I see your point of view but I just don't agree with it. You're also bringing in another issue, referee favoritism, which I agree with but I don't see how it pertains to this discussion. You shouldn't be swinging your arm around IMO. Reckless behavior causes bad outcomes. I saw the replay and granted my eyes suck but that was much more than just casually pointing like Fisher made it out to be.

Anyway, it was a horribly refereed game. As usual.
That's just it though. He wasn't throwing his hands around in a furor. He was making the "taunting" gesticulation with his hands, and then threw his arm over to where the infraction occurred. The ref just walked into his frame like a blind numbnut and caught a shot. It happens. Certainly not worthy of an ejection, IMO. And favoritism does kind of pertain to this discussion, because for anyone else, it wouldn't have been an ejection. Which means that the "foul" in and of itself wasn't worthy of the outcome.
 

CoachO

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I don't think they have an agenda. I just don't believe they are trained as well as they could be if they were full time. It's to bad a 9 Billion dollar business can't have full time employess for the most important position on the field.

Freak THE NFL!

I have heard this brought up plenty in the past. This isn't about the $$$ or the NFL being stubborn in its reluctance to hire "full time" officials. This is more about the practical nature of the sport. It's played ONCE a week. Unlike ANY other professional sport, where games are played on a nightly basis. It just is NOT practical to hire 120 officials and have them be "FULL TIME" employees for what amounts to be a one day a week profession. They get plenty of "training" in terms of rules knowledge. They have weekly video conferences, with updated points of emphasis, and receive more video than you can imagine to digest on plays that happen throughout the season. I personally know 3 people who have held down the "job" and have seen first hand the things they do in preparation for a season, and week to week.

I have been a Supervisor of Umpires for a Professional Independent Minor League, and I know how difficult it is to communicate a common message to a group of officials, where they all understand the interpretations expected of them.

That being said, IMO, the biggest issue with the officiating in the NFL right now, is the so called emphasis on safety, which now puts so much onus on pure judgment, and less on the strict interpretation of the rules. Because there has been such a dramatic shift in the rules towards safety, you now have more layers to what should be a basic play, and what you have to interpret as a "legal" play.

Take the play which IMO, started things today. The NON call against Seattle on the obvious illegal hit on Veltung on the punt return. There was so much happening on that one play, and no less than 4 rules which needed to be interpreted. First of all, since Veltung did NOT signal for a fair catch, the official (who was behind the play) had to interpret whether he had an opportunity to make a catch on the punt. If you watch the replay, he reached for his penalty flag, only to change his mind when Veltung held on to the ball. In that split second, he changed his mind, and since he was so focused on that part of the play, he did NOT pay attention to the "illegal hit to the head" with the forearm shiver that was delivered.

Then to compile an already bad call, you have Armstrong taking yet another cheap shot after the play, which just further draws attention away from the initial infraction on Seattle. The thing for me, that makes it so tough to swallow, is there are SEVEN sets of eyes on the field. There is never an excuse for something to get "missed" that has that much of an impact on the play. i.e: where the BALL IS!

What's the most disturbing thing for me, is that before the opening kickoff in most of these games, if you are paying attention, you know which crews are going to be good, and which ones aren't.

AS soon as I saw the FIRST penalty being called, and realized that Jeff Tripplett's crew was assigned to this game, I knew there would be trouble. If you looked at the individual officials when all the crap started, they looked like they had a "deer in the headlights" look on their face. Especially the Line Judge that called the "Verbally abusing an official" penalty.

This was akin to the look a High School official has on his face when he works his first college game. They were so far in over their head it was scary. Trust me, I have been a Division I NCAA Baseball umpire for 25 years, and like I mentioned, have supervised a professional league for 6 years, so for ME to criticize officials is rare. But this has gotten to a point of embarrassment for the NFL.

The best way to fix it, is to take a step back, and while not publicly admit you are going to lessen your point of emphasis on safety, but to make sure your officials understand that at some point, leave the game in the players hands, and be more consistent across the league in their interpretations.
 

moklerman

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The ref's are at a point now where I think of them as bad as the NBA ref's. Every single game I watch there are blatantly influential calls being made. Momentum changing, outcome changing calls.

So, it doesn't surprise me that this game was so screwy. The ref's have been letting Seattle get away with a LOT at home this year and the Rams had nothing to gain by keeping their lips buttoned and their hands in their pockets. Personally, while I was just as aggravated by the loss as anyone else, I'm glad they were actually passionate about what was going on. Okay, maybe they didn't handle things like classy gentlemen but they put a pounding on Taint for all of his trash talk and I didn't see anything that was outright dirty by the Rams. They weren't taking shots at guy's knees or late hits or spearing or anything that I noticed. They played hard and with passion and weren't going to just roll over and I can accept and appreciate all of that.

And, when thinking about the game a little more it's hard to be surprised by the outcome considering Seattle's got the best record in the NFC and the Rams were without any of their starting lineman. Long, Wells, Dahl, Saffold and...who am I forgetting? They were all out as was Tavon Austin and Sam Bradford. You just can't go on the road to Seattle without your QB, entire o-line and the guy who's supposed to be the one playmaker you've got all injured and expect to win.

But the Rams stayed in the game for a long while and even though they never really had a chance of winning, their MASH unit kept it within a score or so for most of the game. I wanted them to finish 8-8 but knew they wouldn't be able to handle that as diminished as they were.
 

The Rammer

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I turned it off in the first half because I was sick of seeing the Rams play like a bunch of idiots and Fisher not doing a damn thing about it. They WERE committing penalties when I was watching.

And even if the refs have made some bad calls, it doesn't give the Rams any excuse. They need to learn to control their emotions and play with more discipline. I don't care what the other team is doing. One of the best examples of this I've ever seen in sports came from when Barret Jackman of the Blues was a rookie. There was a game where a player on the other team was trying to get Jackman to do something. He just kept punching Jackman in the face and Jackman just took it and smiled. Guess what happened? The other guy went to the penalty box. Most players fight back and they either both go to the box or the guy who retaliated gets caught. It's the same for all sports. The Rams need to just worry about themselves and let their play do the talking. Ignore everything else.
This is the classic BS STL fan that I'm so sick of! Turn off the game and change teams. So tired of fairweather fans like this!! It makes me sick! I don't care if a mod hits me or deletes this post its bs....
 

Sum1

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I'm pretty sure the Union wanted to be full time. The NFL didn't want to pay them for that, though.

The compromise should have been the NFL making them full time employees but the refs have their performances reviewed.
The refs are reviewed for performances.

In fact, I think I read on twitter that the refs are picked to officiate the playoffs based on their season grades...miss the playoffs for 4 seasons and they are replaced.
 

Sum1

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This is the classic BS STL fan that I'm so sick of! Turn off the game and change teams. So tired of fairweather fans like this!! It makes me sick! I don't care if a mod hits me or deletes this post its bs....
Yes, this one guys choice is the model of all St.Louis fans...and this one guy only exists with St. Louis fans.

Are we even sure V3 is from St.Louis? I have no idea nor do I care.

Stop it.
 

V3

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This is the classic BS STL fan that I'm so sick of! Turn off the game and change teams. So tired of fairweather fans like this!! It makes me sick! I don't care if a mod hits me or deletes this post its bs....

Are you serious? I'm fairweather because I can't stand watching undisciplined play? That's pretty much my biggest pet peeve in sports. I CANNOT stand watching players take stupid penalties and the Rams were taking a ton of them yesterday. I already mentioned it in another post. It slows the game down to a crawl and pretty much ensures you're not going to win. The teams that win the SB are usually the ones at the bottom of the list in terms of penalties. Hell, the game yesterday didn't even matter, yet I was watching. The Rams have had the worst 5 year stretch ever in the NFL, yet I continued to watch and support them. They've had one of the worst decades of all time, yet I watched every week. I even went beyond just watching and participated in Rams discussions every single day on various Rams forums. I could go into a diatribe about LA fans but I'll take the high road. If getting pissed beyond words about avoidable penalties makes me fairweather, then I guess I have a different definition than you do. So please, get off your sanctimonious high horse about being a "true fan". You don't know me and I'm glad that you don't.
 

V3

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The refs are reviewed for performances.

In fact, I think I read on twitter that the refs are picked to officiate the playoffs based on their season grades...miss the playoffs for 4 seasons and they are replaced.

If it takes 4 season of bad performance, then I think that needs to be revised. This crew obviously isn't cutting it. Teams shouldn't have to wait another 3 years to get better refs.

I think one thing that could be implemented fairly easily would be to not allow a crew to officiate a team with whom they had a previous poor performance in that season. Since they already had a bad game with the Rams in Carolina, they shouldn't have been put with them again.
 

A55VA6

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If you turn off your TV during bad games, you should have to turn off your TV during the good games. Experience the wins and losses from beginning to end with your team. Just my opinion.
 

Sum1

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If you turn off your TV during bad games, you should have to turn off your TV during the good games. Experience the wins and losses from beginning to end with your team. Just my opinion.
I don't understand why it bothers people what others do with their time.
 

rhinobean

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The shecock fans were concerned about this crew before the game. Guess they were right!
 

Angry Ram

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Are you serious? I'm fairweather because I can't stand watching undisciplined play? That's pretty much my biggest pet peeve in sports. I CANNOT stand watching players take stupid penalties and the Rams were taking a ton of them yesterday. I already mentioned it in another post. It slows the game down to a crawl and pretty much ensures you're not going to win. The teams that win the SB are usually the ones at the bottom of the list in terms of penalties. Hell, the game yesterday didn't even matter, yet I was watching. The Rams have had the worst 5 year stretch ever in the NFL, yet I continued to watch and support them. They've had one of the worst decades of all time, yet I watched every week. I even went beyond just watching and participated in Rams discussions every single day on various Rams forums. I could go into a diatribe about LA fans but I'll take the high road. If getting pissed beyond words about avoidable penalties makes me fairweather, then I guess I have a different definition than you do. So please, get off your sanctimonious high horse about being a "true fan". You don't know me and I'm glad that you don't.

Can't avoid judgement calls.
 

A55VA6

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I don't understand why it bothers people what others do with their time.
It doesn't bother me? I'd care less what people do with their time. I'm just saying as a fan, if you abandon your team when they struggle... that's not much of a fan.
 

jjab360

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Anyone who thinks the refs don't have it out for the Rams hasn't been paying attention

ref-punching-ram.jpg
 

V3

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It doesn't bother me? I'd care less what people do with their time. I'm just saying as a fan, if you abandon your team when they struggle... that's not much of a fan.

I didn't abandon the team when they were struggling. I just had better things to do with my time than watch players take stupid penalties. I have watched almost all of the other games where the Rams lost or even got embarrassed. The difference is when the players start taking A TON of stupid penalties. I can't watch teams that commit penalty after penalty. I'm pretty sure people watch sports to be entertained. Watching a team take penalty after penalty isn't entertaining. It makes me physically ill to watch. That's how much it drives me crazy. And to say it was all the refs is just being a homer. The Rams WERE committing stupid penalties.

Also, if I watched all their games when they were at their all time low with only a couple wins a season, I don't think you can say I abandoned them.
 

Sum1

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I didn't abandon the team when they were struggling. I just had better things to do with my time than watch players take stupid penalties. I have watched almost all of the other games where the Rams lost or even got embarrassed. The difference is when the players start taking A TON of stupid penalties. I can't watch teams that commit penalty after penalty. I'm pretty sure people watch sports to be entertained. Watching a team take penalty after penalty isn't entertaining. It makes me physically ill to watch. That's how much it drives me crazy. And to say it was all the refs is just being a homer. The Rams WERE committing stupid penalties.

Also, if I watched all their games when they were at their all time low with only a couple wins a season, I don't think you can say I abandoned them.
I agree with this.

Sometimes in all aspects of life you have to know when you need to be the bigger person and do the right thing. Acting like an asshole just because someone else is doesn't make it right. You want to shut Golden Taint up? Don't let him score...

You think you are getting a raw deal on the penalties? Don't give the officials a chance to flag you. Shut up, get back on the field, and drive the opponent into the ground legally.

Moral victories are for losers...I truly believe that. Charting progress is one thing...hitting players after the whistle to the point you are getting flagged isn't showing how tough you are and how much heart you have, it's showing how vulnerable you are and how inferior you see yourself.
 

V3

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I agree with this.

Sometimes in all aspects of life you have to know when you need to be the bigger person and do the right thing. Acting like an asshole just because someone else is doesn't make it right. You want to shut Golden Taint up? Don't let him score...

You think you are getting a raw deal on the penalties? Don't give the officials a chance to flag you. Shut up, get back on the field, and drive the opponent into the ground legally.

Moral victories are for losers...I truly believe that. Charting progress is one thing...hitting players after the whistle to the point you are getting flagged isn't showing how tough you are and how much heart you have, it's showing how vulnerable you are and how inferior you see yourself.

Thank you. I really feel like I'm doing a horrible job at explaining myself. To be called a fairwether fan because I can't stand watching players take dumb penalties after all the years I've spent watching this team REALLY pisses me off. I could have gone off on an expletive filled rant telling people off for it but I didn't. I tried to exercised restraint. I don't get why players can't do the same when they hear players like Taint running his mouth.