So let me get this straight…refs can make bad calls that potentially cost teams games but NFL coaches can’t call them out on it? Hmmm…anybody else smell a steaming pile of horse droppings?
Coach Sean Payton is appealing a decision by the NFL to fine him $15,000 for questioning a perceived no-call on a neutral zone infraction after last week’s Broncos game. I didn’t see the tape, so I can’t speak on whether Payton was right in criticizing the no-call. But I do find it more than a little Gestapo of the NFL to punish coaches for being vocal when refs mess up.
Under league rules, bad calls and no calls can only be addressed privately…in dark corners and secret meetings. Payton made the egregious error of actually going public with the notion that an NFL referee made a mistake. Payton even said he had the video to prove it. (I guess a picture’s not just worth a thousand words but 15 thousand dollars.)
Sounds to me like the NFL is afraid to acknowledge that it’s imperfect. When will they realize that us fans are already very fully aware of that fact? I say Payton’s right to appeal the league’s decision. He didn’t pull some sideline tantrum, he didn’t even get especially excited about the no-call during his news conference. I think the NFL needs to get over itself. Leave it to us fans to give the Coach a hard time over bullsh*t. Bastards…
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Good for him though. Calls like that do cost games.
The NFL is up to something, thought, with this ref business. During preseason, I was watching a game. I can’t remember which one. But all through the game the talking heads kept saying things like how the refs get it right 99% of the time, blah blah blah. I remember thinking how odd they kept pointing out how good the refs were.
THEN they referred to an NFL night game as a good family outing and I knew they were being paid by the NFL to say these things.