THE HAWKS, THE REFS AND ROGER

The NFL is becoming very full of itself. Roger Goodell oversees a $9 billion dollar enterprise and trumpets all the virtues of the NFL, the shield, the league and its players. He’ll pound the pulpit about ‘player safety’ and tell every fan how concerned he and the league is about the welfare of its’ players.

He’s full of baloney. Or something else.

Take a good. Close look at the schedule and ask yourself how this would impact player safety. The Packers open their season by playing on a Sunday, Thursday, and Monday and then finally back to Sundays. That’s a 4, then 11 the 6 day break between games. Then there’s the Baltimore Ravens, who play 4 games in 17 days. Yikes! Just who the hell is the NFL kidding? The league doesn’t give a damn about player safety; it is only concerned with how much revenue the players that make up the NFL can generate for 31 wealthy owners and a publicly owned team.

The NFL has become the pimp to the players’ whore. The NFL pimps their products and the NFLPA is powerless to do much about it. The inclusion of Thursday night football is going to be around for quite a while. Why? It makes money, pure, plain and simple. Whether or not the players have adequate rest time to heal their battered bodies is irrelevant. There is a group of fresh faced college kids out there ready to come in and take the jobs from the NFL vets eagerly. The cycle will be self-generating and on into perpetuity as long as the money train feeds the insatiable appetite of the pimp.

Thursday is yet another example of Goodell’s arrogance. It wasn’t enough to have a once-a-year event on Thanksgiving day. Nope, the pimp, as it always does, wants more. If the pimp wants a little more, it throws then whore out another night with they want to or not – they ain’t got a choice. I pay you millions while I make billions so you bet your jockstrap you’ll do what I tell you.

Football at its worst is a violent constant collision game. It is that very violence that dates as far back as the Roman Coliseum that attracts and draws fans. With the advent of ESPN, the NFL Network we are fed a steady diet of football and we can’t seem to get enough. The toll taken on the human body to participate in the pro game is immeasurable. If the average took just one shot from Ray Lewis or Clay Matthews or Brian Urlacher they’d need a couple weeks of bed rest before being able to return to work.

And yet the NFL, in all its brazen glory, throws them back on the field in 4 days, all in the name of a few more bucks.

Compounding the felony is the fact that Goodell and his poobah counterparts in the NFL have thrown replacement officials out on the field to control and maintain the chaos. The results have varied from amusing to outrageous to downright dangerous. NFL players are all college educated and a pretty bright group as a whole. Their minds are still intact and they won’t have to pay the bill for their on field exploits for another 20 or 30 years. They have figured out as the rest of the viewing world has that they can and will get away with as much as they possibly can and then some.

The replacements are in so far over their heads it defies description. The pimp truly believes they can take a lawyer, 2 accountants, a salesman , an ad ex, a contractor and a retired high school gym teacher right out of Division III ball, cram a rule book down their throats or up someplace else, dress then up in NFL clothes and call them “Game Day On field Officials”.

 

The NFL is full of baloney. Or something else. To catalogue the mix-ups, goof ups, screw ups, flub ups and mistakes would not only fill this column it would read like “War and Peace”. All anybody really has to do is to turn on the highlights and watch. Flags are thrown yet no penalties are called. Players tackle other players and flags are thrown. The rule book has been stepped on, tramped on, run over, ignored, misinterpreted, screwed up to point that it is laughably embarrassing to watch these well-meaning guys trying to keep pace. Games are running way over time, but it gives the networks a few more shots at commercials, and a few more bucks.

The game is just too damn fast, the players are too big, so how can anyone expect a lawyer, 2 accountants, a salesman, an ad ex, a contractor and a retired high school gym teacher to control the extra-curricular activities of some of the largest, strongest and toughest bad asses on the planet? The amount of hockey-like pushing and shoving after the whistle is escalating weekly. The players are taking advantage of the replacements inexperience. Authority? How can the replacements have authority when they don’t have the respect of the players. The coaches have been irate. Some like Denver’s John Fox, San Fran’s Jim Harbaugh and even New York’s Tom Coughlin are browbeating g these poor saps from the sidelines every chance they get. And they will continue to do so simply because they can. The pimp doesn’t give a damn about the ho as long as the ho keeps making the money.

The replacements themselves have been placed in a horrible spot. Imagine Bill, the hometown ex-jock who works a few games on the weekends for a few extra bucks reffing a game between East Armpit College of Lesser Knowledge and Muskalooga Technical getting ‘THE CALL’. “… Hello, Bill? Yeah, hi this is Roger Goodell of the NFL and we’ve been really impressed with your performance. No, really Bill… we’ve had our eye on you for some time and we think you are big game material. Whattaya say to maybe doing a few NFL games for more money than you’ll make in a lifetime? Hey, it’s a cool gig – nothing to worry about…these guys are all professionals and understand the deal. Yep, that’s right. You can be nose to nuts with some of your favorite players AND get some TV time. Sound good? GREAT!! Just sign right here, right after the part that says we own you lock stock and barrel and don’t worry about the fine print that says something about selling your soul. And just don’t wear your Saints jersey when you ref in the Superdome. Besides… no one will notice. Good luck Bill, and hey – my door is always open. We’re one big, happy family around here.”

And the poor sap has just been roped in and thrown blindly to the wolves. Now, to be fair, they did get three weeks of an intense crash course on a rule book that is more complex than hooking your analog VCR to your Hi Def Midi HDMI flat screen. Some of them look real good in NFL stripes. We’ll even concede the point that they are trying and they are doing their level best.

But their best is nowhere near good enough. Not for the players who are all bigger, faster, and stronger than anyone they’ve seen in the D – 3 ranks anyways. And not for the coaches who are a demanding, bullying lot who exploit that weakness and whose frustrations over the repeated incompetence are reaching a boiling point. And not for the fans who keep showing up week after week filling the stadiums and shelling out the lifeblood of the NFL, the raison d’etre for Roger and the moneymongers by forking over every dollar the NFL can convince them is to a worthy cause. The replacements have no authority and hence no control of the chaos because they have no respect from the players.

The Replacement Referees during a review

Oh, but they do have the endorsement from Roger and the misers that own the teams. “We’re pleased with the performance” goes the NFL when the topic of the replacements comes up. Roger at.al also saw fit to impose a gag on the coaches and players from commenting about the replacements, just like a pimp wants his ho to just shut up and keep handing over the money.

It won’t be until a player gets maimed as a result of the incompetence that something is done. Even then it will be too late. And yet the pimp keeps throwing the ho back out because, hey – it’s a tough world but we gotta keep the flow of cash going.

In a $9 billion – in actual numbers it looks $9,000,000,000.00 – industry the total amount to get the real refs back works out to roughly between 1 and 2 hundred thousand dollars – and that looks like $100-200,000 – it is an oversimplification but this strike is no longer about the money or the players. It’s about Roger wielding his mighty sword to show everyone who’s boss. After having his New Orleans Saints ‘Bountygate’ suspensions thrown back in his face don’t expect ol’ Rog look to capitulate anytime soon. The NFL and Roger need a win and pounding the Referees union is the small dog the bully thinks it can kick around.

While Roger and the other owners keep fiddling while their Roma Empire burns just don’t say they care about player safety. They don’t really give a damn about player safety; they are only concerned with keeping the players out on the field and the money rolling in.

Memo to Roger and the NFL: pay the refs and get them back on the field ASAP. The players want it, the coaches need it, and the fans deserve better.

As the Packers carousel  ride star to the season is winding down they fly into Seattle on 11 days rest to face the new look Seahawks. Most Packer fans and the Pack themselves expected to be facing old friend matt Flynn at QB as Flynn signed a huge deal with the Hawks in the off season. But Flynn will be occupying an all too familiar spot on the bench as he left his backup role in Green Bay to take a backup role in Seattle as Wilson’s clipboard holder. Wilson had a spectacular preseason in winning the starters job outright from Flynn and possess a big arm and some promising young talent around him. Now he has to prove it against the Pack.

After whipping the Bears and pounding Jay Cutler relentlessly with 7 sacks and 4 picks the Packers have rebounded from an opening day loss and now feel confident going into Seattle. The defense is beginning to take shape and now has to face the Beast in RB Marshawn ‘Skittles’ Lynch. The Packer D did an outstanding job in keeping the Bears from running and all but grounded the Bears new play toys for Cutler as they held WR’s Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffry to 3 catches and a puny 31 yards.

New Head Coach Pete Carroll is injecting his rah rah college approach into the previously dormant ‘Hawks but reality will smack them right in the chops. They will try to pound Lynch inside but will find much tougher sledding. The Packers counter with their own ground game with Cedric Benson. Benson’s ability to get yards opens up the airwaves for Aaron Rodgers.

The Packers offense still looks like it is finding its stride and this will be a great opportunity to right that ship. As Rodgers gets more comfortable with Benson carrying the ball it can only open up the play action possibilities he has not had before. WR Greg Jennings has a nagging groin injury and may not see much time, if any at all. James Jones has begun to find some space and he along with Jermichael Finley will be a great help if they can stop the drops.

Seattle is a teams on the rise. The Packers are there. The offense finds its legs and the ‘Hawks find out they aren’t ready to run with the big dogs.

Of course if the replacements get in the way again they could muddy the outcome.

    GREEN BAY    41  

 
    Seattle        13