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Will replacement
officials be reluctant
to throw their flags?
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Let there be a rules change or a coaching shift or an injury of consequence in the NFL,
and guys sit around and puzzle over it. They are opportunists. Why not say it? They are
gamblers.
They seek an advantage. The edge, baby. That little nuance, however minute, that can
give the player a head start over "the man." You know who "the man"
is. This publication is not one for the naive.
Opportunity. On this matter I can’t help but remember a motion picture, one of my
favorites, I should note, "The Americanization of Emily," starring Julie
Andrews, James Garner and the cast of World War II. The thrust of the film was that for
many, the war represented an opportunity for personal gain. For some, that opportunity
came in terms of career enhancement, for others, monetarily. For these persons, the
war’s only tragedy was when it ended.
Gamblers, meaning you and I, have to see the presence of the replacement officials as
an opportunity. Just now, guys are addressing what bearing these guessers are going to
have on how games are played. Not being one who considers gambling sinful, the same
thoughts, I must admit, have occurred to me.
What I think is this: The zebras in the replacement zoo are going to be reluctant to
pitch their little yellow flags around in any degree. They wouldn’t want to be caught
up in controversy. They seek anonymity, which is the best status for officials dealing
with any sport.
You’re aware, I’m sure, of the school of thought that holds that a baseball
umpire or a basketball or football official or a man working with fighters is doing his
best when he is least noticed.
Players surely are going to sense the officials’ mood. Sensing it, they are going
to seize upon it by punching the guy across the line of scrimmage from them in the mouth.
The above is cited only as an example. I do not advocate mayhem. I do, however, anticipate
it.
I ran my thinking past Fred Swearingen, who was the referee during the game marked by
the most debated play of your lifetime and mine — the "Immaculate
Reception" by Franco Harris during Pittsburgh’s 13-7 playoff escape against
Oakland so many years ago. Swearingen is 80, but his thought processes still are keen.
"I think the replacement officials are going to be overmatched," he said.
My thinking exactly.
Let me expound. The most damaging of penalties is pass interference. We’re not
talking 15 yards here; we’re talking at times 40 to 50 yards, and sometimes more. So
now the game’s permissiveness has been established. Guys are getting away with
things. Some of the guys are pass defenders. They are doing things on deep routes that
they possibly could not do if the regular guessers were out there. They are hammering the
bejesus out of receivers daring to come into their areas.
The result: fewer long gains. Fewer touchdowns, particularly for teams that delight in
going long. The Rams come quickly to mind.
The moral: bet the "under."
You’re listening, I should point out, to a guy who for his newspaper was 21 games
over .500 in his selections against the spread at midseason last year and two weeks later
was three games over .500. Lost my opinion. Where is it? Have you seen it? Come back, dear
opinion.
These replacement officials are an odd lot. Since the NFL and NFL Europe are clearly
associated, one would think the NFL would have tapped its European affiliation for
replacement people, but the zebra apparently is not native to Europe. By Ed Hochuli’s
count, none of the replacement officials have been schooled over there.
Hochuli, one of the real referees on typical Sundays, is a Phoenix attorney on the
other days of the week. He has been exercising a strong voice in the affairs of the
locked-out officials. To a journalist who had expressed sympathy with his position, he
fired off an e-mail in which he listed the backgrounds of the replacements:
Thirty-three are from the major college game; 13 are retired college officials; 24 are
from high school or junior-college football; 39 are from small-college football; none are
from NFL Europe. The Arena League, you might have noticed, also is not represented, which
affirms a position of mine: that the Arena League, while entertaining enough, is not
football as we know it.
What an unfortunate way to begin a season.
Jerry Magee has covered pro football for the San Diego Union-Tribune since 1961 and for
PFW since its inception in 1967. |
