the guys in stripes......

[hawaiiansteel]

[SDSteel1]

And these are the regulars......no wonder the replacements suck too.

[papillon]

All this whining about nothing, the calls are no different good or bad than the regular referees. The problem these guys are having is managing the game, the teams and coaches. Hand out dome unsportsmanlike conduct penalties to coaches for being idiots and thinking that because they're replacement refs that they can berate them without penalty and the game will get under control quickly.

Flacco and his whining, Fox and his whining, the media and their whining is nauseating. I read an article about the Ravens game and inside the article they say the Ravens were complaining about two calls that were wrong, but after reviewing the footage the calls were correct. So, why are they still bellyaching? The calls were correct.

I hope the regulars never come back, you want to fix the game and keep the pace of the game moving, then eliminate the ridiculous instant replay, play the game, live with the calls and either win or lose. The games will get done in under 3 hours easily. Every call doesn't have to be correct they only need to be equitable to both teams, that is, no bias. Some of the most exciting football to watch that didn't involve the Steelers was during the 70s; the game had good pace and you didn't have to set aside half a day to watch a game. There were mistakes, some helped your team and some didn't, but over the course of a season it probably evened out.

Instant replay is the problem, not the refs.

Pappy

[fezziwig]

Having a super-early week 4 bye typically sucks, but at least it means that we get one less game with the replacement refs this year.

That's a positive way of looking at it. Hopefully the other refs will return soon so this early bye doesn't go unappreciated.

[RuthlessBurgher]

One other issue potentially in play:

The regular refs make an average salary of $150K for a part time gig (not to mention a lucrative pension to look forward to after they retire as well), so it is unlikely that any of the real refs would ever risk that level of security for an NBA ref Tim Donaghy type of payoff. But these replacement refs are expected to be gone in a matter of weeks (at least I hope so), so what do these guys have to lose if organized crime makes one of them an offer that he can't refuse in order to make sure that a certain team covers the spread? Just a thought...

[fezziwig]

organized crime nothing ! we should get together and offer the refs some coin for an outcome of a game lol. if the phantom calls they had on our steelers this past game came from the regular refs then, i would have said the fix was in.

[NorthCoast]

"I'm not comfortable with what I saw last night," the owner said after watching the Atlanta Falcons' 27-21 victory over the Denver Broncos. "It wasn't professional. It wasn't our standards of what a game is supposed to look like … it's not the calls themselves and it's not player safety. That's a silly argument.

How ironic... the very guys that can control resolving the referee issue are complaining...... Owners best be silent on this issue, or their hipocracy will turn against them quickly.