Friday, September 28, 2012

NFL substitute referees by: Melissa Milton


The real referees were greeted with a standing ovation Thursday night as they returned to the field after a new contract was announced less than a day earlier. It may be the last time fans will voice their opinion on the recent NFL lockout that brought replacement referees to the football field.
Thursday's 23 to 16 win by the Baltimore Ravens over the Cleveland Browns went on without much controversy, a far cry from the gaffe-filled display that punctuated the first three weeks of the professional football season. 

(This was the worst call ever!) The league acknowledged Tuesday that the Packers should have won, but allowed the result of the game to stand. NFL chief apologizes about the replacement refs, Goodell declined to criticize the replacements despite weeks of botched calls that raised the ire of fans nationwide. "Everything they did, every call, was magnified," Goodell said. "They kept the game going. They worked hard. They trained hard. They were incredibly focused and dedicated." Henry Zaborniak, a fill-in line judge who lives in Ohio, said it was a hard job. "We worked as hard as we could and we did the best we could," said Zaborniak, who spent 15 years as a Big Ten official,. "None of us felt like we could replace the regular guys. You can't replace that sort of ability en masse."

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