The 20 thoughts I had were...
1) Turnovers suck.
2 - 20) I saw at least this many fucked calls by the zebras today. Complete bullshit calls.
I realize you can't expect the refs to make every call and you can't control that... but those fucks shouldn't get paid for the job they did yesterday. They should be fined.
I hope in my lifetime to see what amounts to an all electronic refereeing system... like if Watson by IBM were put in charge of calls... creating all of the players on the field in wireframe (allowing for flex...as we've seen with Kupp, his shins flex... I dunno how, but they do), sensors in the ball and all along the field as well as sensors in the field with cameras all over the place. The wireframing would allow the computer to call holds, tripping (which they missed in the NE/TB game) and all sorts of other calls.
"OH NO! They can't call holding on every play!" Fuck yeah, they can. And it would only take a few holds for play callers to refocus their efforts, pay the players who don't need to hold to win and eventually, you'd see some really talented athletes switch to the OL as opposed to filtering them to the DL because... "the OL is allowed to hold every play, so we need superior athletes on the DL to overcome the advantage" bullshit.
We'd still have people down there for spotting the ball (the refs would have an indicator that they were placing it correctly), informing fans of the call, breaking up the piles, etc.
Am I willing to give up the "human factor" to ensure that they call holds? Fukin A
Am I willing to give up the "excitement" of not knowing if the refereeing crew is a "let them play" crew or a "we run a tight ship" crew? To quote the song... "In a New York Minute... Ooooweeeeoooooo"
Am I willing to forgo all the "the Super Bowl is fixed" conspiracy theories (some of which I agree with, quite frankly) for a game that is called so neutrally that folks wax nostalgic about the days when it was just a dirty sport played with leather helmets in the mud? SIGN. ME. UP.
Fucking tired of ANY talk of refs. They are ONLY there to officiate the game. Period. NO ONE wants to see or hear from them. A perfect game involves both teams incurring no EARNED penalties, experiencing no UNEARNED penalties and the refs are only responsible for marking the ball and keeping the time.
It will be a glorious day if my vision comes to pass... for ALL sports.
Referees should be like mens room attendants: you barely notice they're there and they're there to keep the place tidy, but the point of the mens room is to have a place to relieve oneself and wash up afterwards. No one goes to a restaurant with the express goal of visiting the attendant in the mens room and that goes infinitely more so for sports referees (unless it's the mens room at the Minneapolis Airport... LOL)
Normally, I'm a pro-union guy, but dammit if I wouldn't love for someone to smash that referees union so hard, Reagan pops a posthumous boner so large, it dents the lid of his coffin...
