Doug Saffir

When MD Jennings and Golden Tate came down in the end zone, it seemed pretty obvious what happened. Jennings had made the interception. Game over.

Then, chaos erupted. The back judge and side judge didn’t communicate, put up two different calls, and gave Tate the touchdown. I, for one, was furious.

Despite no rooting interest in either of these teams, Monday night’s train wreck was three weeks coming and the fact that no one put on the brakes was infuriating. I yelled at the refs on my TV. How could they do this?

Then, a friend of mind on Twitter corrected me – this is almost zero percent their fault. Did they make the wrong call? Absolutely. But who put them in the position where they could do so? Ah, now we’re getting somewhere. Below are the four groups to be angry with about the NFL referee lockout, in order of most hated to least hated.

1) Roger Goodell, NFL Commissioner

Things were going so well! Last year’s lockout, albeit stressful, was resolved without losing any games. This year, the NFL stood to make an even more absurd killing than it did last year. League support and fanship was seemingly at an all time high.

Then Roger got greedy. He thought, “Sure, we make $9 BILLION annually, but WHAT IF we could save each owner $60,000 more? I’d be a hero. The owners will love me for my INGENUITY and fans will admire my KEEN business sense. Now, where can I save that money?”

That question could apparently only be answered with, “Let’s eliminate the only thing that stands between our already violent game and senseless gladiatorial combat!”

At Goodell’s command, the experienced referees who command respect and maintain order were sent packing. In came the scabs and the rest is history. Thanks, Roger.

2) The NFL Owners

Typically, lockouts are between owners and players (read: billionaires and millionaires). But the NFL referees don’t make millions of dollars. In fact, the league considers them part time employees and, on average, pays them less than most other leagues pay their referees.

While NFL refs still do make a considerable amount of money (average of $149,000 in 2011), it’s become all too clear that the price tag is well worth it.

Unfortunately, it seems the owners are content to save a little money and sacrifice the product on the field.

3) The Replacement Referees

Don’t get me wrong, Goodell and the owners put these replacement officials into a terrible situation. But that does not totally absolve them of responsibility.

Fans can complain one way or another about officials throwing too many flags or not throwing enough flags in the first three weeks. All I’m asking (and all I think players want) is consistency. The Sunday and Monday night games were both horrifically inconsistent, and that’s the biggest problem.

Players need to know what will be called and what won’t be in order to play to the best of their abilities. When there’s no consistency, players are tempted to test what they can get away with. That’s when sloppy play happens, it’s when injuries happen, and it’s when America’s most popular sport becomes unreasonably chaotic.

Beyond consistency, these referees need to communicate better. The two judges who made the call on Monday night didn’t say a word to each other. They exchanged a look, both raised their arms, but used those arms to make different calls.

Officials, replacement or otherwise, need to take the extra second to talk it over and clarify what they’re seeing. Without that, you end up with the picture above – two refs, two calls, all confusion.

4) NFL Fans

Look, going a weekend without football is hard. Not hard in the real world sense of being actually difficult, but when given the choice, most fans would rather watch football than not.

Unfortunately, going a weekend or two without watching might actually make the game better. The NFL can afford to keep the replacement officials out there as long as they’re still selling their product. If people watch, if people buy tickets, and if people buy merchandize, who is wearing the striped shirt on Sundays doesn’t matter one bit.

So as much as fans may hate the replacement officials, they are complicit in their continued presence on the field. By continuing to support the league that locked out the qualified officials, fans continue to justify the lockout.

Photo courtesy Sports World Report