The NFL has removed referee Pete Morelli's officiating crew from Sunday Night's Indianapolis Colts-Pittsburgh Steelers game. The "demotion" is due to mistakes that they made in last Sunday's Arizona Cardinals-San Francisco 49ers game. It's the second time this season that the league has had to take disciplinary action against this crew for officiating errors. It's great that the league is reacting to some of these ridiculous mistakes made by their part-time employees. It's not great that the league is simply moving Morelli's crew to a game that's not televised to the nation in primetime. It's even worse that the league considers assigning an officiating crew to a non-primetime game a punishment. The non-primetime game that has now been gifted with Pete Morelli and his gang of clowns is the Philadelphia Eagles-New England Patriots game. Lucky them. It's simply stunning that the NFL is okay with an officiating crew repeatedly making mistakes as long as those mistakes aren't made during one of their marquee games.
The first time that Pete Morelli's crew came under fire this season came in Week 5. The league suspended side judge Rob Vernatchi for one game with pay after he failed to ensure the accuracy of the clock during the Pittsburgh Steelers 24-20 win over the San Diego Chargers. The game clock erroneously ran for 18 seconds following a touchback late in the fourth quarter. As side judge, Vernatchi is responsible for the official time. He missed the running clock that should have been a stopped clock. So did every other member of his crew. The NFL said that this error would impact the grading of the entire crew. They probably couldn't afford any more mistakes. Yet, here we are. Last week in the Cardinals-49ers game it seemed that this crew was often blind to the game that they were assigned. They were also blind to the rules that govern the game.
"The officials were struggling. Mightily. I mean, they can't count to three."
-Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians
Arians was referring to a sequence of plays in which the Cardinals offense had caught the 49ers with 13 men on the field on a play in which they had gained two yards. After much discussion, Morelli's crew assessed the penalty after the two-yard gain. What should have been 1st-and-five became 2nd-and-three. "That's not what we accepted," Arians said, "and that was the whole problem." It took these guys ten minutes of discussion to get the call wrong. How does that happen? Well, the NFL allows it to happen. As long as it's not in primetime.
If Morelli's crew was assigned to a non-primetime game this week would they have been disciplined at all? That's an outstanding question. I wonder if the NFL has an answer and, if so, are they willing to give it. The fact that the NFL thinks that a non-primetime game is less important than a primetime game is a problem. A serious problem. Every game is important. Every game is so important that each and every one deserves an officiating crew made up of full-time officials. These part-time officials clearly aren't working anymore.
The officiating in the NFL, and in college, this season has been horrible. Absolutely horrible. The game deserves better. The players and coaches deserve better. The fans deserve better.
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