Perfect caption.

I love this photo. Just shows what a joke this whole situation has become. Never before has the NFL had to deal with such a nationwide embarrassment. I read several stories today saying in Vegas somewhere between $100 million and $250 million dollars shifted based on that one blown call. The Packers were 3 1/2 point favorites and would have covered the spread since they would have won by 5 points. Damn it would have sucked to be on the wrong side of that bet. But anyways to make my point, this problem is affecting much more than one single regular season game. This problem is causing people to question the integrity of the National Football League. Over the past 36 hours countless players have gone to social media and absolutely blasted the Commissioner, the replacement referees and the league itself in a way no one has ever seen in the history of the NFL.  In the words of Aaron Rodgers, the star quarterback of the Packers, "I just feel bad for the fans," Rodgers said on a radio interview on ESPN Radio. Rodgers then said "The product that is on the field is not being complemented by an appropriate set of officials. The games are getting out of control. ... The game is being tarnished by an NFL that obviously cares more about saving some money than having the integrity of the game diminished a little bit." I agree with everything Rodgers said in that
interview 100%  and I just hope that come the end of the regular season this game won't affect whether or not the Packers get into the playoffs. 

According to league sources and ESPN's Chris Mortensen, the NFL officials and the Referees Union engaged in talks for 17.5 hours yesterday with talks finally concluding at 2:30 AM this morning. Word has it that they are very close to finalizing a new deal and that several referees have already been contacted with instructions to clear their schedules for this weekend as they may be returning to work. The unfortunate thing is that this deal wasn't finalized before the season began. Now we all have to deal with having the first 3 weeks being tarnished by sub-par officiating and unfairly determined outcomes. I'm not saying the regular officials don't make mistakes because they definitely do. But very, very rarely do the officials determine the outcome of a game like we have seen on back to back nights on Primetime TV. Let's just all pray this deal gets done so I never have to write another boring article about NFL officiating. 

PS - If this deal does get done, I feel bad for the players and fans of the Browns and Ravens. Apparently  they will still have to deal with the replacement officials one last time for their game on Thursday night.

PPS - Just got a text from my friend saying he overheard 3 different conversations about the replacement officials while walking only 1 block on the streets of Manhattan. And the NFL said this wasn't an issue. Yaaarighttt.