"The Monday Nightmare"

Millions of Americans were watching the Green Bay Packers @ Seattle Seahawks Monday Night Football game this week. We saw one of the highest scoring offenses in recent history let their defending MVP quarterback Aaron Rodgers get sacked an unbelievable 8 times. Eight sacks in one half? That's pushing it even in Madden....There was very little scoring, and the game was a tight defensive battle forcing punt after punt after punt. Before the game though, I couldn't even name a single player on the Seahawks defense. Not a single one. And it's not like I don't watch every week. I play fantasy football, watch every game I can every Thursday, Sunday, and Monday. But Pete Carroll's defense looked amazing Monday night. They put pressure on Rodgers rushing 3 or 4, which helped to shut down the Packers prolific passing game. I personally have Jordy Nelson on my fantasy roster (who had almost 1500 yards and 15 TD's last season), and he was held to just 2 catches for 19 yards. Greg Jennings almost scored, but his foot went out of bounds at the one yard line. It was a game of inches, and a game of strategy. It seemed like neither offense would get going, so we knew it would come down to each team's last possession.

With the Packers up with less than a minute on the clock, the Seahawks rookie QB Russell Wilson chucked up a hail mary jump ball to the left corner of the end zone. In live motion, I really couldn't tell who caught the ball, but it was sure that somebody had in fact caught it. After a quick replay, it seemed fairly clear that the Packers M.D. Jennings came down with possession, even though Seahawks receiver Golden Tate managed to stick in arm in to try to get a hold of the ball. But then one of the most bizarre things I've ever seen in all of football happened: the two closest refs came to the play, looked down, at each other, and then made completely different calls. The two replacement refs had not conferred on what the result of the play was, and one called for a timeout (which would indicate a touchback for the intercepting team) while the other signaled touchdown. After review of the play (I don't know why the reviewed it, when they didn't have to review the Pats/Ravens final scoring play the night before...), the head referee decided that it was in fact a touchdown, and the "12th man" went wild.

The buzz surrounding this incorrect call is huge. Not only had Golden Tate gotten away with a totally blatant offensive pass interference, which should've nullified the "catch," but the ruling before and after replay was totally wrong. The NFL rules state that in the case of a simulataneous reception by two players on opposing teams, the offense wins control. That would mean it was a catch. However, the rules also state that it is NOT a simultaneous catch if one player has possession and then another player gains joint control. That means that in reality, it was NOT a touchdown catch.

The fact that the league came out Tuesday morning after the game and said the result was correct and that the game was final further proves the flawed dictatorship that Roger Goodell is running. As fans, we should not put up with this kind of product. We love football, and everyone -other than Seattle fans- agree that the call should've been reversed and the Packers should have been given the win that they earned.

In my opinion, as unique as it is, I think the teams should refuse to play. They should refuse to go to their away games and tell the Commissioner that they will not let another game be wrongly decided by these high school, lingerie league refs. This is their livelihood, this is their love. It's like buying a Mercedes and having a Kia engine under the hood.