Clayton Article On The Refs

[The Bad Guy]

When a ref says it's an "honor" to ref a game because of Jerry Rice you know it's trouble.


Raiders, Chiefs make plea for regular referees
By John Clayton, ESPN.com

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- For two weeks, locked-out officials were looking for a poorly officiated game by their replacements to promote a settlement. They got one Sunday when the Oakland Raiders nipped the Kansas City Chiefs 27-24 on a Sebastian Janikowski field goal with 1:06 left in regulation.

After the game, Raiders and Chiefs players, bitter rivals by day, walked over to NFL Referees Association negotiator Tom Condon in unison and begged him to get the regular officials back. Chiefs fullback Tony Richardson, somewhat of a benefactor from a confusing third-quarter non-call, summed it up best.

"We need our refs back," Richardson said. "We've got to get this done. I'll give them some money to get it done."

The game was held up for close to 15 minutes to review, re-review and figure out a play in which Richardson appeared to be pulled down by two Raiders short of a first down on a third-down play with 37 seconds left in the first half. Line judge Ron Baynes, who is a league supervisor of officials, didn't think Richardson was down so he started running upfield with Richardson.

"I had ruled from my side of the field that the receiver was never down," Baynes said to a pool reporter. "The runner was never down."

So Richardson figured he should have been given the ball at midfield, where he ran out of bounds. Raiders coach Jon Gruden called for a replay because he felt his two defenders pulled Richardson backwards before he reached the 30, which was first-down territory.

What happened next was even more bizarre. Referee Randall Beesley viewed the replay and communicated with Nate Jones, the replay official who told him that the play couldn't be reviewed. Beesley, after reviewing the play, announced that the play cannot be reviewed only to find out that it could. Ball placements can be challenged if it involves first downs, and in this case, it did.

So, the play underwent a second review, but this time not by the referee. It was handled by Baynes, who found out he was wrong with his call.

"When I looked in there, his (Richardson's knee) was down, I found out," Baynes said in a pool report. "The play should have gone then to the head linesman's spot and we never had a (TV replay) shot that showed any irrefutable evidence that we could turn it over. We had to take the spot that was given on the field."

In case you didn't know, the head linesman was on the opposite side of the field, and he put the ball at the 30, good enough for a Chiefs first down. Gruden's challenge was denied. The Raiders lost a timeout. Richardson lost his chance for a big gain, but he got the first down. It took close to 15 minutes to bewilder and confuse everybody in what was then a strange 17-14 lead by the Chiefs.

"I said on my radio show last week, I didn't care if the game was four hours. As long as they get the calls right, it's fine," Raiders receiver Tim Brown said. "I think it almost went four hours. It's a tough situation. I knew last week they did pretty good, but we knew the intensity would be higher this week. They just didn't get it done."

Asked if the replacement officials were overmatched, Brown said, "Yes, ain't no doubt about it."

Brown will probably have to contribute to the officials' finance fund because he received a rare unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for talking to Beesley after what appeared to be a blown sideline call. Raiders halfback Charlie Garner got one foot in bounds on an incredible 27-yard sideline catch with less than two minutes left in the first half. Chiefs safety Jerome Woods gave him what appeared to be an illegal helmet-to-lower-helmet hit that drove
him out of bounds at the Chiefs' 12

Incomplete was the call. The replay assistant challenged for a replay. Beesley ruled that it was no catch, so the line of scrimmage moved back to the Chiefs' 39.

"I asked, 'What was the ruling?' " Brown said. "The referee said that he didn't get knocked out of bounds. I asked him if he saw the replay. He said, 'Get out of my face or I'm going to kick your *** out.'

"I said, 'What?' Then he threw the flag. I never said anything out of disrespect toward him because I wouldn't do that. I thought it was totally inappropriate."

Beesley might not be a fan of Brown, but Brown claims the officials, particularly Beesley, liked teammate Jerry Rice. Brown said that one official came into the locker room before the game and asked for Rice's autograph. Beesley, according to Brown, came into the huddle and shook Rice's hand and said that it was "an honor to referee a game with you."

What an embarrassment.

Several Raiders spoke out after the game about their concerns.

"This is my life, and you work all year round to get the opportunity to have 16 chances to do what you like to do," said Raiders defensive end Trace Armstrong, the president of the NFL Players Association. "You want to be certain that the game is determined by actions on the field. I'm not saying it was or wasn't today. But there were some things out there that I'm concerned about."

Armstrong was concerned about two plays in which helmet-to-helmet hits on Raiders received no attention by the officials. The Garner play was one. Another involved Chiefs offensive lineman Donald Willis delivering a helmet spear on Raiders middle linebacker Greg Biekert following a dropped pass by Snoop Minnis that Beikert picked up. After the play was ruled dead, Willis drilled him. A fight almost broke out. There was no flag.

"My biggest concern is player safety and there were a couple of cases today that I thought some players went over the line," Armstrong said. "There were some things that really didn't have any place on the football field."

Raiders quarterback Rich Gannon, who, like Armstrong, admits that his agent is Condon, said he had concerns about questionable calls in relationship to the outcome of the game.

For example, Gannon cited Trent Green's spectacular 12-yard scramble out of bounds on a third-and-10 with 1:32 left. Green made it out of bounds, but he let the play clock get down to five seconds before the officials reset it with a fresh clock. Green still couldn't get the play off from the Raiders' 30, so he called a time out.

"They reset the play clock, and that was incredible," Gannon said. "They never, ever reset the game clock if it gets down below five seconds. That was a big play in the game, and that would have saved a timeout. That was huge. That could have been the difference in the ball game."

Two plays later, Green hit Minnis with a 30-yard touchdown pass to tie the score at 24 with 1:21 left.

"I didn't have any idea it was going to be that bad," Condon said. "The game went almost three-and-a-half hours (3:27). They weren't calling holding. The stoppages in the game were bad. How about that late shot on Biekert and there was no flag on the play?"

Condon plans to call the league on Monday to restart contract talks. Here's hoping that the league listens.

[Marty McDonald]

Agree. Refs are supposed to be impartial. These guys we had today were impartial to making a bad call or no call.

The NFL needs to shelve their impish pride and hammer out a deal with the Refs. This will ruin what promises to be a good season for a lot of teams.

[philfree]

Some of the things in this aticle aren't accurate. Beikert picked up the ball and ran with it an after he he ran 5 or 10 yard I heard the whistle but Beikert kept running but he dropped his guard just a hair and he got knocked on his butt by a 300lber. There was no intentional helmet to helmet contact on that play. I'm not sure who it was but the Ciefs player was standing erect at the end of the play. He would have had to get low to make that kind of contact. It's BS!

PhilFree :cool:

[SUPER CHIEF]

Of course Clayton forgot to mention the multiple "should have been called" intentional groundings that Gannon got away with... :D

[philfree]

Super Chief, I was just about to post that too. If we listen to this kind of BS they would have us belive that the unemployed officials never screwed up. What a joke!

PhilFree :cool:

[stevieray]

As the whole nation is watching tommorrow...Non calls? Of course, this will be of no surprise to the Invescos, they're used to it.

[Rausch]

I think there are a few things to take a away from this game...

1)Noodle-arm is a pretty smart guy. He noticed they weren't calling him for intentional grounding, so he continues to do so each time he's in danger of getting sacked. Still no call. Hey, as much as it ******* ticked me off, I don't blame the guy.

2)God only knows who would have won that game, or by how much, if the officials had a brain. Quite often the regular officials made poor calls that could be argued cost this or that team a game. But rarely do the regular officials forget or just outright not know the rules, forget what can or can't be challenged, or ask a future HOF player to impregnate his whife and belittle himself to the players and fellow officials....

3)There were three plays that I can think of at this hour, off the top of my head, after takeing a pain pill for a seriously painful wisdom tooth, where a flag was thrown [B]after[/B] (and almost certainly due to) players displaying their dramatic talents. I hope our recievers learn, and our corner remembers, this for the next game in Seattle.

4)Gruden really [B]does[/B] look like Chucky when he's ticked off. Which is always....Seriously, he does....It's uncanny...

[Ultra Peanut]

[quote]4)Gruden really does look like Chucky when he's ticked off. Which is always....Seriously, he does....It's uncanny...[/quote]You're right. If I have to see that dirty little imp celebrate after a Chiefs-Raiders game again, I'll throw up. :)

[mcan]

Psic-
It took me a second to notice, but I just want to say that I really like your avatar. :)

[Ultra Peanut]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by mmccann2333 [/i]
[B]Psic-
It took me a second to notice, but I just want to say that I really like your avatar. :) [/B][/QUOTE]Heh, thanks. It was definitely one of the bright spots of the day.

[Bob Dole]

Bob Dole pretty much ignored the rest of the article when John Boy had a factual error in the first paragraph... Doesn't have much to do with the topic, but it's shoddy work.

There wasn't anything wrong with the hit on Biekert. Biekert picked up the ball and was attempting to advance it. If a guy is doing that, you tackle his a$$ unless you definitely heard a whistle. Willis didn't do anything except throw a shoulder into the tough guy and stroll on like nothing had happened.

[the Talking Can]

How can anyone be satisfied with these scab ref's after that game?

Jesus, tell Bush to order the ref's back on the field; the president can do that, right?:D

[KCTitus]

I was more than satisified with the refs in the game. As I expected there were some mistakes made and calls missed, but I fully expected it.

I was glad to see that the ref crew did not influence the game like they had in the past. Depending upon the crew working the game in the past, I allways knew just what kind of uphill battle KC had and what types of flags would be thrown. Each crew last year had it's own personality and certain influence to the game. These refs did not and they let the game be played between the teams rather than by the hankie.

All of the past history of the teams was not there to draw the hankies as in years past and it was refreshing to see the other teams getting bad calls just as KC was instead of it only being a one way street with last years refs.

Just as KC looked shaky this week, so did the refs. I fully expect them to improve and be much better as the weeks progress.

[nmt1]

They did better than Hochuli and his 13 holding calls on us in that San Diego game a couple of years back.

I honestly don't think the regular refs would have done a whole lot better.

Remember Vinny T's phantom touchdown, the coin toss debacle, etc. etc. etc.

[NaptownChief]

They made their share of mistakes but as I have said earlier, if you remove the repeated grounding no calls that Gannon got away with then the number of mistakes are no more than what the regulars would make....

Give them a week to shake off the butterflies and review the game film and these guys will get the job done just fine....