DON’T GET ME STARTED will have football fans seeing – over-and-over- how the NFL is beginning to self-destruct by the embarrassing ineffective, flag throwing officials.

NFL

Art Wander

What fans, those who love the Cowboys and those who don’t, will be seeing is a Detroit Lions apparent victory taken away by the officials. Here’s what they will see:

Detroit was leading in the 4th quarter by a few points. The Lions were mounting a pretty good drive that at the least they would kick a field goal to increase the lead. Stafford threw a pass to the left sideline toward his receiver. The Dallas defender never turned his head…..made contact with the receiver before the ball got there preventing the receiver to make the catch and a flag was thrown.

The referee came to the middle of the field and made the announcement, “Pass interference on the defense – first down Detroit.

As the Lions got going into the huddle, all of a sudden play was stopped and the referee then indicated that the flag was picked up. No announcement was made why the flag was picked up, especially after announcing the call. That ended the Detroit drive. Everyone, even announcers felt it was interference. An officiating person on the network who knows all about calls said it was interference.

99.9% of the time during the season, pass interference was called on similar – and, in fact, less controversial plays. The .1% cost the Lions a possible victory over Dallas.

Conspiracy? Is Jerry Jones in charge of hiring NFL officials – or assigning those to earn extra money in the playoffs? Earlier a flag was also picked up on an interference call. On the Cowboy game winning drive, 2 penalties were called on Detroit after Dallas didn’t convert on 3rd down. Those flags gave the Cowboys a first down as they marched for the final, game winning points of the game. I didn’t have problems with those calls…..but no matter what the explanation anyone can make of the one interference call that wasn’t enforced won’t satisfy me.

Simply put, the terrible call EMBARASSES the NFL. I don’t think there’s any NFL fan that isn’t disgusted by the huge amount of yellow flags flying all over the place this past season. Those who are trying to become fans can’t understand why there’s so much stoppage because of the flags.

The officiating and flag throwing this season is a bummer. Teams are seeing double digit number of penalties. It is ridiculous, no matter who you are rooting for. Take a note after every play, especially a pass play, the announcers are quick to announce……”there’s no flags on the play.” So often, they say, “there’s a flag on the play.”

Roger Goodell, your game is in trouble. It doesn’t matter if I’m a Cowboy fan or not, the fact remains that Detroit was denied a possible victory by an interference call (that was announced as such) only to have – quite a bit later- the officials pick up the flag.

Note how many times, a slight touch of a receiver downfield draws that “illegal contact” garbage. They put that in to insure safety. For a mere touch of a jersey? Awwwwww, I could go on and on with so many examples of bad officiating. Unlike players and coaches or owners, I won’t get fined for complaining about this crap on Don’t Get Me Started.

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