NFL and NCAA Referees

St. Louis Rams interim coach Jim Haslett has been fined $20,000 by the NFL for “going onto the field and directing profanities at a game official” during a game a few weeks ago against the San Francisco 49ers.  It’s not clear what he was upset about, and the Rams had just completed a 29-year pass.

It’s also not clear who the official was that he was yelling at, though we know that Alberto Riveron was the referee for that game.

Is it just me, or is the number of fines for things related to the officials (complaining, mostly) much higher this year than in years past?

Lots of craziness due up in the next few days (Thanksgiving Day pro games, rivalries in college), so let us know what kind of crazy stuff you witness from the men in stripes.

The list is already partially full for this week (thanks Tex!), but it’s still got some holes.  If you know of any of the blanks, please reply to this post and help us fill them in!

So what kind of wild stuff have you seen this week in football?

Who is working each game this weekend?  Help us fill out the weekly list!

As it turns out, it WAS a touchdown for Troy Polamalu, but it’ll never show up that way in the history books.  Fortunately, this error didn’t change the outcome of the game.  However, it messed up a lot of gamblers and fantasy players, and could possibly affect the playoff picture under certain scenarios.

The problem is that if ANY forward pass touches the ground, the play is dead.  The officials simply got confused about which pass was which.

The little flip pass from LaDanian Tomlinson to Chris Chambers was an illegal forward pass, but was handled cleanly by Chambers.  When Chambers tried to lateral again, the ball hit the ground.  However, because that pass went backwards, the ball was still live and it was legal for Polamalu to pick it up and score.

There still should have been a penalty on the Chargers for the illegal forward pass from Tomlinson, which the Steelers could decline so they could keep the touchdown.  That’s what happened initially.  After that, referee Scott Green changed his mind (got confused, etc) and things got a little weird.

As a result of this mess, the NFL is looking at making some slight tweaks to the replay system.  With the new rules, officials will be allowed to re-review a play if they think they need to.  This new system could be in place in time for the playoffs.

See anything fun this weekend?  Any horrible calls?  Discuss them here!

As always, let’s figure out who is working each game this week.  Here’s the list we’ve got for week 11.

Any noteworthy calls (or missed calls) in any of the games this weekend? Talk about them here!