NCAA and NFL Referee news
The 2013 NFL season is finally here, with Walt Coleman handling the officiating duties in Denver. We’re working feverishly to track down the week 1 assignments.
If you know of any others that we’re still missing, please leave a comment and let us know.
Brian Urlacher, linebacker for the Chicago Bears, has been fined $20K by the league for “abusive conduct toward a game official”.
The words came following a bizarre play last week in which the Falcons fumbled the ball, the Bears recovered it, then they fumbled, and the Falcons got the ball back. The result of that was a first down for the Falcons, because the ball had changed possession. It was a confusing play, but it certainly seemed that Al Riveron and his crew took their time and made sure to get it right.
I guess Urlacher was just frustrated with the play, because the refs certainly got it right.
Other players were recently fined for similar incidents, including Miami’s Joey Porter, Denver’s Dre Bly and the Rams Richie Incognito.
Just days after Saints’ coach Sean Payton was fined $15,000 for ripping the officials, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has been fined $25,000 for a similar offense.
Jones had made comments about Ed Hochuli‘s famous week one mistake in the Broncos-Chargers game. Jones admits he was out of line, saying that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is “doing his job”.
Jones was fined more than Payton because owners are held to a higher standard. Chargers coach Norv Turner was not fined for referring to the blown call as “unacceptable”, since he limited himself to that single word and referred all other questions about the matter to the league office.
According to ESPN, New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton has been fined $15,000 by the NFL for criticizing the officals after last week’s 34-32 loss to the Denver Broncos.
Specifically, Payton was upset that an obvious neutral zone infraction wasn’t called with 2:40 left in the game. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell made it clear to all teams that they are welcome to talk to him about officiating problems, but any public criticism (like Payton’s) will result in disciplinary action.
The referee in the Saints-Broncos game last week was Ron Winter, though this call would have been the responsibility of his Head Linesman or Line Judge.
Referee Ed Hochuli has issued a brief statement apologizing for the blown call in last week’s Chargers-Broncos game. His statement:
“I’m getting hundreds of e-mails — hate mail — but I’m responding to it all. People deserve a response. You can rest assured that nothing anyone can say can make me feel worse than I already feel about my mistake on the fumble play. You have no idea … Affecting the outcome of a game is a devastating feeling. Officials strive for perfection — I failed miserably. Although it does no good to say it, I am very, very sorry.”
At this point, I’m not sure what else can be done. He’s apologized and the league will look into the “inadvertent whistle” rule, so hopefully this story can start to go to rest.
You can bet his next game will be scrutinized closely, though.
After the Broncos-Chargers mess, we figured it would happen — the NFL has officially announced they’ll be looking into the inadvertent whistle rule during the next offseason.
ESPN compares it to the “down by contact” rule that was changed a few year ago, which allowed officials to review some plays that they previously couldn’t.
It’s it a bit to late to please Chargers coach Norv Turner, but it’s nice to see the NFL taking steps to prevent this from happening again.
I was going to write a more complete recap of this situation later, but we’re already seeing some comments about it.
The quick version, via ESPN:
Trailing 38-31, the Broncos (2-0) reached the 1 but on third-and-goal, Cutler reared back to throw and the ball slipped out of his hands, bounced off the grass and into linebacker Tim Dobbins’ hands.
But referee Ed Hochuli blew his whistle, apparently ruling it an incomplete pass. After a review, Hochuli said that the Broncos would keep the ball because his whistle had blown the play dead. The Broncos got the ball at the 10-yard line, where it had hit the grass out of Cutler’s hands.
I’m kind of torn on this. Hochuli obviously blew the call, but did all he could to make it right. Once he had blown the whistle, there was nothing he could do. Of course, he never should have blown the whistle.
The difference last week in the Washington-BYU game was that the refs had time to discuss it, and still blew the call. Of course, that game would have only tied it, whereas this call certainly lost the game for the Chargers.