2012 NFL Season Thread

[The_Admiral]

Great, now Packers fans are going to think they were the ones who did it.

[infrared41]

Great, now Packers fans are going to think they were the ones who did it.

Right.

[Lights Out]

Refs lockout over

tl;dr: Cheap sucky refs replaced by expensive sucky refs.

[CS85]

At least now we can actually blame the officials and not the league.

Or something.

[NEW.ERA]

We so had something to do with the refs getting back to work.

[CS85]

ITS JUST BECAUSE THEY WANTED THE PACKRS TO GO UNDEFEATED THE REST OF TEH SEASON

(that's what I'll be reading on my Bears forum the rest of the week)

[The_Admiral]

Great, now Packers fans are going to think they were the ones who did it.

Right.

Don't underestimate simpletons who say "social media" twice a minute.

[infrared41]

Great, now Packers fans are going to think they were the ones who did it.

Right.

Don't underestimate simpletons who say "social media" twice a minute.

I have no idea what that's supposed to mean or what it's in reference to. Nice dfwabel impression.

[The_Admiral]

OH YOU DIDN'T SHOTS FIRED NOW IT'S ON.

I am simply postulating that there may well be twerps out there who will point to their facebook boycotts and twitter feeds as what finally pushed the league to end the lockout. That's all. I don't find that implausible. I'm not saying all Packers fans will somehow take credit for the lockout ending, just that the usual contingent of twitter-jockeys who always go on about how "see, we CAN change the world! #changetheworld" might emerge on this one, in this case many of whom will, quite naturally, tend to support the Packers.

This is getting rather involved for what I had only budgeted to be a mere offhand half-joke!

[Cujo]

You KNEW it was going to take a team getting fcuked out of a win for talks to finally get serious. Too bad for Packers fans, it had to be their team.

[ninersdd]

You KNEW it was going to take a team getting fcuked out of a win for talks to finally get serious. Too bad for Packers fans, it had to be their team.

What if it was say, the Lions-Titans game which wasn't on national TV and the exact play happened to one of the teams. Would the outcry have been as huge?

[NEW.ERA]

I guarantee! This isn't 1982 anymore. Every game is under a magnifying glass, no matter how crappy the teams. I just hate how people are saying that this is only happening because it's the Packers, or if it was Dallas, New England, Pittsburgh. That's total crap!

[Lights Out]

You KNEW it was going to take a team getting fcuked out of a win for talks to finally get serious. Too bad for Packers fans, it had to be their team.

Please. If it were the other way around and the Seahawks got the bad end of the questionable call and the Packers benefited, the controversy would have been extremely minor by comparison - the same old "don't blame the refs when your team could have done this, this, and this" fallacy would be trotted out.

I guarantee! This isn't 1982 anymore. Every game is under a magnifying glass, no matter how crappy the teams. I just hate how people are saying that this is only happening because it's the Packers, or if it was Dallas, New England, Pittsburgh. That's total crap!

Somebody should alert ESPN that it isn't 1982 anymore, then, because the only teams they care about are Dallas, New England, Pittsburgh, Green Bay, New Orleans, and the New York teams.... and they've been the ones largely whipping up the replacement ref hysteria.

[Cujo]

You KNEW it was going to take a team getting fcuked out of a win for talks to finally get serious. Too bad for Packers fans, it had to be their team.

What if it was say, the Lions-Titans game which wasn't on national TV and the exact play happened to one of the teams. Would the outcry have been as huge?

Of course bad calls happened in other games. The final play of DET-TEN was the Lions going for it on 4th and not opting to kick a FG. Nothing close to a "scab ref screwjob on the final play", which is what happened to the Pack.

[CS85]

OH YOU DIDN'T SHOTS FIRED NOW IT'S ON.

I am simply postulating that there may well be twerps out there who will point to their facebook boycotts and twitter feeds as what finally pushed the league to end the lockout. That's all. I don't find that implausible. I'm not saying all Packers fans will somehow take credit for the lockout ending, just that the usual contingent of twitter-jockeys who always go on about how "see, we CAN change the world! #changetheworld" might emerge on this one, in this case many of whom will, quite naturally, tend to support the Packers.

This is getting rather involved for what I had only budgeted to be a mere offhand half-joke!

I second this notion. The controversy and negative attention that was drawn to the league was no doubt relevant to the haste at which the deal was finalized, but to claim that the HashTag Army was the hammer that drove the nail home is incorrect.

Anyone claiming they were "done watching the NFL" and other similar faux-boycotts left precisely 0 impact. There are people that say that crap every single week about things far more mundane than bum officiating. It's white noise.

[waltere]

NFL/Referee Association make it official: Lockout is over.

Thank for that

[Sport]

Refs lockout over

tl;dr: Cheap sucky refs replaced by expensive sucky refs.

Which is the best possible outcome in this situation. What do you want them to do? Invent perfect video analyzing robotic refs that calculate exact degrees of football injustice pertaining to the overly-complex NFL rulebook? The real refs get it right most of the time, they keep games in line most of the time, the players have actual respect for them most of the time. And what do you care, you're not the ones paying the refs. I just want to watch good football and this will get us closer to that.

The real refs miss calls, yes, but not on the level and with the same frequency as the scabs did. There will be a noticeable difference in the quality of officiating this weekend. OR there won't be because people like you will over-analyze every single play expecting them to be 100% when that just isn't realistic unless they were to invent perfect video analyzing robotic refs that calculate exact degrees of football injustice pertaining to the overly-complex NFL rulebook.

Also, I think the fact that we're even arguing about whether or not that was an interception is the entire problem with the NFL rulebook. It needs to be simplified. In what world would that play be considered a tie? In what world would the Tom Brady tuck rule play not be considered a fumble? In what world would the Calvin Johnson play not be a catch and a touchdown? I even have a problem with forward progress. Everything is too complex for these guys to judge at the speed the game is played today. The Packers player came down with the ball. It was an INT.

[illwauk]

Great, now Packers fans are going to think they were the ones who did it.

HEY... the profanity laced message I left on Goodell's voicemail that he probably deleted without ever listening to has EVERYTHING to do with why the real refs are back... YOU, BRO!

You KNEW it was going to take a team getting fcuked out of a win for talks to finally get serious. Too bad for Packers fans, it had to be their team.

Please. If it were the other way around and the Seahawks got the bad end of the questionable call and the Packers benefited, the controversy would have been extremely minor by comparison - the same old "don't blame the refs when your team could have done this, this, and this" fallacy would be trotted out.

Well here in the real world, it was the Packers who got jobbed and the lockout has ended, so I'm not sure why any of this matters.

[Lights Out]

I actually agree that the NFL's rulebook is bloated and overcomplicated to a ridiculous degree. It also gives refs too much of an opportunity to cover their asses with obscure footnotes of subsections of clauses of rules when they should be easily held accountable for obviously bad calls.

I also think computerized officiating is inevitable in all sports. We're almost there, really - we have strike zone trackers on every baseball broadcast, we have NBA teams using the SportVU system to track players' actions on the floor and calculate it into statistics, and the networks have long since figured out how to shove cameras into just about everything on a football field from the helmets to the football itself. I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility to have a program that takes the motion tracking technology and all the camera angles on every play and compares them to the league rulebook.

Furthermore, I don't see a problem with wanting to get the most correct, fair officiating possible. Coaches, general managers, and players are held to exacting standards and an intense level of scrutiny - and rightfully so, because pro sports is a big, demanding industry, and the competence of people in all three of those roles are literally the difference between winning and losing. Why shouldn't we hold referees to that same standard, when their actions can also have a big impact on the outcome of games?

[JQK]

The refs will ALWAYS make bad calls, replacements or regulars... it's not the bad calls that bothered me, it was the incompetence and lack of general football common sense that was unbearable...

tl;dr:

Every motherfu*ker who does this deserves to have the s**t beat out of their stupid fu*kin' skull...

/rant