I know we should stick to high school sports on here, but I just read something that I think is ridiculous and casts a bad light on football in general. So I would be curious to hear what others think.
In last week's Washington Commanders' victory over Philadelphia, a Washington player grabbed a face mask late in the game that caused a turnover and ultimately led to a score. However the refs missed it and did not flag the guy for the face mask.
Well here we are almost a week later and I just read that the NFL has fined that player over $10,000 for grabbing the face mask. So what do we think of that?
If the refs are supposed to be in charge of the game, should the NFL have that kind of after-the-fact authority? If so, then where do you draw the line? Are other players and coaches going to start demanding fines for every other thing that they think the refs missed? I always thought that refs were supposed to be in charge and that their decisions were final, no matter how wrong some of them might seem to be.
Yes, I know we have had players fined for fighting and even for unrelated off the field behavior, but aren't we opening up a can of worms if the NFL is going to start analyzing every single play and doing its own refereeing? Can you imagine the chaos it would cause if the NCAA or our very own VHSL started doing this kind of policing of the game?
Please understand that my beef is not with the player in question or who won the game or who is the better team. I just think it is wrong that the NFL would take this step over one isolated play when there have been plenty of blown calls over the years that impacted games. Let the refs do the best they can and accept the fact that they are going to miss some things.
In last week's Washington Commanders' victory over Philadelphia, a Washington player grabbed a face mask late in the game that caused a turnover and ultimately led to a score. However the refs missed it and did not flag the guy for the face mask.
Well here we are almost a week later and I just read that the NFL has fined that player over $10,000 for grabbing the face mask. So what do we think of that?
If the refs are supposed to be in charge of the game, should the NFL have that kind of after-the-fact authority? If so, then where do you draw the line? Are other players and coaches going to start demanding fines for every other thing that they think the refs missed? I always thought that refs were supposed to be in charge and that their decisions were final, no matter how wrong some of them might seem to be.
Yes, I know we have had players fined for fighting and even for unrelated off the field behavior, but aren't we opening up a can of worms if the NFL is going to start analyzing every single play and doing its own refereeing? Can you imagine the chaos it would cause if the NCAA or our very own VHSL started doing this kind of policing of the game?
Please understand that my beef is not with the player in question or who won the game or who is the better team. I just think it is wrong that the NFL would take this step over one isolated play when there have been plenty of blown calls over the years that impacted games. Let the refs do the best they can and accept the fact that they are going to miss some things.
