"All-star" officiating crew for Rams-Chiefs game

[Eleazar]

NFL ups intensity with all-star officials for Rams-Chiefs game

Kevin Seifert
ESPN.com NFL Nation



The NFL took the unusual step this week of assigning an "all-star" officiating crew to the most highly anticipated game of the season, adding to the playofflike frenzy for Monday night's matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Rams.

Referee Clete Blakeman will work the game with only two members of his regular crew, umpire Ramon George and down judge Dana McKenzie. The other five officials -- including Jim Lapetina, who will handle replay -- were plucked from four other crews.

The approach is similar to how the NFL assigns officials to playoff games, a process that is based on performance and seniority rather than crew. But it is rarely, if ever, employed before the postseason. Officials typically work on the same eight-person crews throughout the regular season to maximize continuity and familiarity among members.

Individual crew members are occasionally juggled for health or scheduling reasons. But a series of actions this season have indicated the league is moving away from the consistent crew concept, in favor of a more aggressive administration of officiating. Earlier this season, the league bounced down judge Hugo Cruz among four crews before ultimately making him its first-ever official to be fired for performance during the season.

NFL spokesman Michael Signora confirmed Sunday that "there is a rotation amongst the crews throughout the season." Signora did not provide details on the decision to overhaul Blakeman's crew for Monday night's game.

An officiating source said Sunday that the five officials added to Monday night's crew are all highly respected and have performed well this season.

The Chiefs-Rams game, originally scheduled to be played in Mexico City before it was relocated to Los Angeles, is a rare matchup. Since 1970, there have been only four other games pitting teams with one or fewer losses this late in the season. And according to the Elias Sports Bureau, this is the latest matchup ever between two teams averaging at least 33 points per game.

The following is the full crew for Monday night's game, as listed on the official flip card published by the NFL, with the officials' permanent referee in parentheses:


Referee: Clete Blakeman

Umpire: Ramon George (Blakeman)

Down judge: Dana McKenzie (Blakeman)

Line judge: Rusty Baynes (John Hussey)

Field judge: Dale Shaw (Jerome Boger)

Side judge: Brad Freeman (Clay Martin)

Back judge: Tony Steratore (Boger)

Replay: Jim Lapetina (Brad Allen)



http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/2...ff-rams-chiefs

[Mecca]

Originally Posted by Eleazar

Show us all these penalties they're getting away with, and show us all the corresponding flags that are getting thrown against us for doing similar things.

Tony Dungy was even pointing the shit out man...

I also pointed out a couple and several others have been pointed out in the thread, to lazy to read it?

[petegz28]

Originally Posted by Eleazar

Show us all these penalties they're getting away with, and show us all the corresponding flags that are getting thrown against us for doing similar things.

Are you ****ing serious? Are you going to pretend there wasn't a false start and hold by the same player on a TD play for the Rams?

And that's for starters...

[Mecca]

Originally Posted by Pasta Giant Meatball

They "didn't see it", Mecca

That is just head in the sand bullshit, I don't wanna admit something so importan to me is ****ed up. It's why parents won't admit their kid is a drug addict even if they can see see. Well you know I've never seen him shoot up so he's fine.

[Pasta Little Brioni]

Coschise, I will also say KC had a TON of calls go their way at home against Frisco and Denver. There is an obvious agenda to how games are called.

[Pasta Little Brioni]

Originally Posted by petegz28

Are you ****ing serious? Are you going to pretend there wasn't a false start and hold by the same player on a TD play for the Rams?

And that's for starters...

"Didn't see it" Just like Hunt and Kelce grabbed in the red zone leading to FGs against NE when they had like 3 TD drives from calls like that...

[Fish]

Originally Posted by Eleazar

The conspiracy loons always point out the fact that we get called for a lot more penalties than our opponents, never considering the fact the we might actually commit more. By their logic if the penalties aren't even, then that's hard evidence of bias against us. Never considered is the simplest explanation, that we just happen to commit a lot of penalties.

We're way above the league average in almost every category of penalty, and many of these are pre-snap penalties, or other penalties like hands to the face that are not subjective.

The refs are not making our guys false start. They aren't making people jump offside. They don't force people's hands up into facemasks or get people to grab handfuls of receivers' jerseys.

If there's some massive bias here, show it. Show us all these penalties that are BS against us or getting ignored for our opponents. Rarely do you see that, mostly you just hear that it's impossible that a very disciplined team like the Patriots could have a game where they commit few penalties. No evidence, just the claim that they couldn't have done it. But since this is a massive conspiracy in every game, there should be a ton of specific examples of clearly false flags being thrown.

Of course, some things are missed in every game, whether the Chiefs are playing in that game or not. Some things like holding and PI are somewhat subjective. But we largely do not have an argument against the flags we are getting. Every time they show the replay it seems like the DB has an arm around a guy as he's coming out of his break or he's got a handful of jersey or he's in contact before the ball arrives and isn't playing the ball.

We've got a mediocre offensive line that's holding and getting a lot of false starts because they are undisciplined and not very good. We have a secondary that's getting a lot of holding and DPI because they are undisciplined and not very good. This really isn't hard to figure out.

Yup. KC has 17 false start penalties(most in NFL). 13 offensive holding(4th in NFL). 14 defensive holding(most in NFL). We're a sloppy undisciplined team right now. It's that simple. Compare that to somebody like NE, who is very disciplined. The refs aren't the deciding factor there. Not when you can look at the penalties overall and see the patterns.

[Mecca]

New Englands offensive line is untalented and grabby, yet they don't receive calls because well we know why.

[staylor26]

Originally Posted by Fish

Yup. KC has 17 false start penalties(most in NFL). 13 offensive holding(4th in NFL). 14 defensive holding(most in NFL). We're a sloppy undisciplined team right now. It's that simple. Compare that to somebody like NE, who is very disciplined. The refs aren't the deciding factor there. Not when you can look at the penalties overall and see the patterns.

Yea NE looked soooo disciplined tackling Kelce and Hunt in the red zone and still not being called for holding/PI



The evidence is out there. Those tweets were posted over and over. Keep pretending there’s no evidence though.

[Pasta Little Brioni]

Anyone can be disciplined if they don't throw the ****ing flag. LA committed TWO of those fouls you rag on KC about on the same play and they called neither. NE was allowed to hogtie Ford, grab Kelce, grab Hill, grab Hunt, and NOTHING was CALLED

[petegz28]

the biggest BS calls and non-calls last night were:

The first DPI on the 2nd or 3rd play of the game. It wasn't even close to DPI
The first personal foul on the opening drive
The consistent blindness to the RT for LA moving early
The consistent bear hugging and holding by the Ram OL
The tipped pass that had to be challenged
The forward pass that was ruled a fumble
The block in the back on a punt return that never happened

[staylor26]

Originally Posted by petegz28

the biggest BS calls and non-calls last night were:

The first DPI on the 2nd or 3rd play of the game. It wasn't even close to DPI
The first personal foul on the opening drive
The consistent blindness to the RT for LA moving early
The consistent bear hugging and holding by the Ram OL
The tipped pass that had to be challenged
The forward pass that was ruled a fumble
The block in the back on a punt return that never happened

Add Tyreek’s BS taunting and Peters taking off his helmet on the field yet no call.

That’s 9 examples that these butt****ing morons are ignoring because we got 1 or 2 calls ourselves.

Sounds fair.

[Mecca]

Originally Posted by Pasta Giant Meatball

Anyone can be disciplined if they don't throw the ****ing flag. LA committed TWO of those fouls you rag on KC about and they called neither. NE was allowed to hogtie Ford, grab Kelce, grab Hill, grab Hunt, and NOTHING was CALLED

You can tell me the Chiefs are undisciplined, you can tell me they commit penalties because the secondary isn't talented.

The problem is one word...CONSISTENCY. Most games really do give you the vibe that just like most parents with their kids, the teams have different rules. If you are wearing this jersey you can get away with more than a guy wearing this jersey.

[Marcellus]

I don’t blame the refs for the loss but to say they infuenced the game is accurate and ridiculous.

[Pasta Little Brioni]

"Didn't see it" Fish and Cochise in unison...

[Chiefnj2]

Some teams get the benefit of the doubt because of star players. It doesn't mean it's a conspiracy to change games.

I also think some refs would rather eat a flag here and there rather than get yelled at an hour by someone like Belichick. That's one of my problems with Andy. Andy rarely loses his cool. Andy should have freaked out about the false starts, but he doesn't. If the tv shows Andy turning all shades of purple arguing about a call, it somewhat forces the announcers to talk about it and make it an issue. Tomlin will occasionally take one for the team and risk a fine , but Andy never will. If your head coach isn't going take a bullet then **** it don't expect anything to change.