Replacement Refs

I had to wait a day before I commented on the incredibly controversial ending to Monday night's game between the Packers and the Seahawks. I know it's big business with lots of money involved, and I also know it's still just a game. There are way more important things to concern ourselves with--like the economy, war, poverty, world hunger, healthcare, education. But football is an escape from that for a few hours each Sunday (and Monday and Thursday.) To me, what happened Monday night shows us that the NFL epitomizes "Corporate America", where upper management simply doesn't understand how the work gets done. Where they think the 'stars" are all they need and the 'peons' are expendable, interchangeable, that anyone can do those jobs. Monday night's ending proved that blatantly wrong. Nothing personal against the men who are the replacement refs, but you don't have a first year medical student performing a heart transplant. These guys are Division 2/3 college refs. That game, while entertaining, is slower, the players aren't 350 pounds, and the stakes are smaller. It's not that it's good or bad--it's simply very different. That two refs, standing next to each other, signalled 2 opposite calls, and totally missed the correct call, was an embarassment. It looked like a Three Stooges sketch. There is too much money involved to exhibit that kind of incompetence. And it is devolving each week--what will happen when a wrong or missed call results in some kind of injury? Is the NFL going to let it go that far? The NFL and the Referees Union need to sit down, hash it out, and not get up until a deal is struck--and both sides need to give in just a little to restore the integrity and safety of the game before something even worse happens. The clock is ticking a lot faster now.