ARE THE REGULAR REFEREES AS BAD AS THE REPLACEMENT REFEREES?

ARE THE REGULAR REFEREES AS BAD AS THE REPLACEMENT REFEREES? I have long maintained that a selection of the referees from the thousands who referee high school games across the country could do as well as the National Football League referees. There was an experiment this fall that bears on the question. The regular referees went on strike and were replaced by temporary referees (referred to as the “replacement referees”). I don’t know how the replacement referees were chosen (apparently one had worked in the Lingerie League), but I was rooting for them to provide evidence for my claim. After three weeks, the replacement referees were considered to have done such a bad job in a game on Monday Night Football, that the NFL felt compelled to settle the strike forthwith. Yet the biggest mistake in that game was made by the instant replay official and the supervisor, who were not replacement referees. The Green Bay Packers (disclosure—I am a Packer fan) were the victims of the Monday Night Football game, but in their next game, the regular officials returned and did a terrible job. Greg Doyel of CBSSports expressed a common theme here: “The replacement refs were bad, yes. But the real officials aren’t much better, as so many games over the years have shown, and as the Packers’ 28-27 victory against the Saints on Sunday proved again.” The excellent Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel sports section had a poll of Packer fans as to which Pakcers game had worse officiating, and 20% of the fans thought that the regular referees had been worse.