All is well with the NFL’s replacement referees.
Just ask Jerry Jones, who continues to take a hard-line stance against the locked-out officials.
“You’ve got to remember that you’ve got all kinds of complaints at any time about officiating,” Jones said Tuesday on KRLD-FM. “Did you happen to notice that the ones that were complaining the most, if it were from within, were the players and coaches on the losing teams? Hello. I don’t even have to look at the games or the dates on the newspaper, just hand me one from 30 years ago and it’ll be the same thing – they’re complaining about the officiating.”
The complaints are actually coming from far and wide. And they certainly aren’t restricted to players and coaches.
Media and fans have ripped the replacement refs. The complaints aren’t just focused on poor calls. They are about poor administration of the game, which, for instance, led to the first quarter of the Broncos-Falcons game on Monday night lasting an hour.
Jones praised the replacement refs for doing “well” limiting violence in the game, although he made a point to note a couple of days earlier that Seattle receiver Golden Tate’s vicious block on Cowboys linebacker Sean Lee should have been a personal foul.
It’s clear listening to Jones discuss officiating that the complaints about the replacement refs aren’t affecting his sense of urgency to reach an agreement with the locked-out officials.
“I’d certainly like to see this thing resolved,” Jones said, “but it does appear that we’ve got a long way to go.”