Sunday, January 11, 2009

Officiating Sucks

Naturally I am a biased fan of the New York Giants and as such probably look at games with an edge toward seeing things their way but after watching the first half of the playoff game against the Eagles one has to wonder if the officials are Eagle fans.
On the opening kick off Bradshaw ran the ball back beautifully. He was stopped from a touchdown because he could not get past the kicker who actually grabbed his face mask to stop him. The officials must have been watching something else - Instead of a 15 yard penalty there was no call.
Ward dives forward on 3rd down and 3 missing the first down by an inch or so. The officials ruled he was out of bounds 2 yards back. Ray Charles could see that he never went out of bounds but unfortunately he is not officiating.
Eagles jump offside the next time the Giants get the ball - No call.
Eagle 9 yard pass ruled a 10 yard completion and a first down.
Giants called for unnecessary roughness on a nice punt return when a Giant literally touched an Eagle softer than a tissue as he went out of bounds. Result - Terrible field position and a touchdown after an interception that has the Eagles in the lead.
By the way if they were looking for unnecessary roughness they would place Eagle Dawkins in jail let alone give him a penalty but so far nothing on him!
Next Giant punt return and another roughness call. This one for kissing I guess because it was even a softer hit than the first one.
Dawkins "helmet to helmet" hit on Boss with 2½ minutes left in half - no call.
Taking away a 5 yard run by Jacobs after Eagles complain about the 2 minute warning is blatantly ridiculous.
10 seconds left in half Giants called for holding - The receiver ran into the Giant who merely pushed him out of the way.
Do the refs think this is touch football?
Luckily throughout the game the crack team in the booth has announced all these errors - NOT. I always wonder why Fox has to have a Dallas Cowboy announcing team broadcast Giant games. To say they are not biased would be to say that George Bush is a member of MENSA.
What happened in the second half almost did not matter as the refs sealed the fate of the Giants early and often.
As I said it will sound like sour grapes but the facts are the facts and they speak for themselves. Turn a game around and there is no turning back.
I wonder who the refs are rooting for in the Super Bowl - I could use the info and an honest bookie.
The funny thing is we all have more important things to worry about in life but as a fan it hurts when the odds are unfairly placed against your team. Naturally no one on the Giants will say anything about the officials as that is not allowed.
But this is true in all sports. I remember Wille Mays being called out at home plate and Bud Harrelson arguing about the obvious bad call getting thrown out of the game. He had a microphone on him so we were treated to his response, "You can't throw me out of the game for your ineptitudes!" Sorry Bud but he can and he will and they always will. Sports is a business and it is officiated by humans who, like it or not have their own likes and dislikes. It is the luck of the draw that the Giants got a couple of guys who do not like them.
91 days left to CitiField - Let's Go Mets!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Though I agree with everything you wrote and my son loves the Giants you would have to agree that Eli Manning looked like Eli Manning from 2 years ago. His throws were awful and mostly ill advised. He has to take quite a bit of the blame for their loss. Did you watch the Ravens game where Joe Flacco should have been called for "delay of game" but went unnoticed by the refs which in turn gave them the winning field goal. I think the league has predetermined who they want in the championship games.

Reschzoo said...

Without a doubt Eli was awful. But if the first quarter was called properly by the refs the Giants may have had a 14 or 17 to 0 lead and Eli could have coasted. As it turned out he was not on top of his game and had to press as well. That led to a bad situation getting worse.
As for the delay of game ABSOLUTELY!
As I always say Refs are human (most of them) and they make mistakes. But when too many of them are against one team it should be investigated. And if a team of refs make such a flagrant error as the delay of game that cost one team a shot at the championship they should be fired.