What happens when you take the great game of football and mix it with a bunch of rental referees, none of whom probably have a clue what they're doing?
According to www.espn.com, the National Football League has already warned coaches not too be too hard on the replacement referees.
Why doesn't the National Hockey League go out and sign a bunch of replacement, half-beaten idiots to play as replacement hockey players until the real ones figure something out to get themselves back on the ice?
Then have the NHL owners/commissioner sit back and watch all the fun that probably ensues?
Well-known ESPN's Adam Schefter reported that Denver Broncos coaching staff members will be fined by the NFL for their actions following their Monday Night Football game against the Atlanta Falcons a week-and-a-half ago.
The league has fined them both.
He also said the league called the Georgia Dome (the site of that night's game), at the halftime to get the message to the two coaches to tone it down a few notches. The coaches (Jack Del Rio and John Fox) were both livid with the replacement officials, especially during the game's opening quarter, which took about an hour to play out.
That game is considered a prime example of why the lockout of the NFL's permanent officials needs to come to an end.
Would the league be better off following their hockey brothers and just call off the season rather than risk the integrity of the players who have trained all of their life to get into the condition they're in to play this game? Rather than play games refereed by officials that are taking away from the gamenobody knows who is going to call what or when?
It has led to a growing outcry over how long a $9 billion-a-year sports entertainment industry can go with overmatched second-stringers in charge.
With no settlement on the immediate horizon, fans may have to get used to the site of confused officials huddled in endless little 'conferences' as tempers start to rise.
In Week 1, when a referee awarded Seattle an extra timeout late in a close game, a mistake that could have allowed the Seahawks to steal a win from Arizona.
Some replacements have embarrassed themselves even before they blow their whistles. One was yanked hours before the New Orleans/Carolina game because his Facebook page shows that he was a huge Saints fan.
Philadelphia running back LeSean McCoy said another official told him that he needed him to play well for his fantasy team.
"This is just not the same NFL game that we're used to seeing," offers Mike Pereira, officiating expert for Fox, and the former head of league officials.
"It's sad. The league doesn't want the games to be played like this. Regular officials make mistakes too. But they don't make as many and they don't do the (huddling) thing out on the field that ruins the game's pace."
The league locked out the real officials in June when their contract expired.
Here is some of what happened over the weekend: in the Lions/Titans and Bengals/Redskins games, officials marched off too much yardage on penalties. Detroit linebacker Stephen Tulloch's helmet-to-helmet hit on Craig Stevens wound up as a 27-yard penalty in Tennessee's 44-41 overtime win.
In OT, from the Titans' 44 yard line, Jake Locker passed to Stevens over the middle for a 24-yard gain and Tulloch was flagged for the hit. Fourteen yards were added to the nd of the play, which was then reviewed and overturned because the ball hit the ground.
The Redskins were penalized 20 yards instead of 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct in the final seconds of their 38-31 loss.
Negotiations with the union over salary and benefits broke down before the start of the season.
The two sides met again last week but they reportedly remain far apart.
Periera said the replacement referees are mostly small college officials while others are former major college refs who have come out of retirement. He said he knows of one whose only experience is on the high school circuit, and that's on top of three former Pac-12 refs who were let go for poor performance.
While a lot of the replacement refs have been subject to some animated verbal tirades by coaches, many players are trying to cut the replacements some slack.
Bay area native and Fox TV analyst Tim Ryan is particularly appalled that with all the discussion about concussion dangers.
"For them to to get the calls about defenceless hits right, is a joke," said Ryan, a graduate of San Jose's Oak Grove High, who played four seasons in the NFL.
"I did the St. Louis/Washington game and there were maybe 25 mini scuffles. Then I'm watching the Monday Night game and there should have been three ejections for throwing punches. Instead there was one penalty call. There is a safety issue. Somebody is going to get hurt."
The world of sports once again dips into the financial world (not involving contracts/player holdouts.)
There's a betting issue mixed in with what appears to be the 'new' NFL. Las Vegas casinos believe that this will be the highest scoring weekend ever because of the replacements. And lines may be skewed even more toward the home team if the officials continue to call penalties against the visitor at a higher rate.
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