The top quip came, naturally, from the professional voice of Al Michaels, who in recent weeks has drawn criticism for seeming to be bored while calling lackluster matchups on "Thursday Night Football.''
The 41-35 Dallas Cowboys win over the Seattle Seahawks was a thriller. No problem there. But another NFL headache was again put on public display, and Michaels said it best.
“We’re going to take the rest of the night off,'' the Amazon Prime voice said sarcastically. "Let Clete Blakeman call the game.”
Blakeman and his officiating partners were definitely the stars of the show in the sense that a total of 25 flags were thrown. ... with 19 of those accepted, for 257 yards in total - a season-high.
Seattle coach Pete Carroll expressed his displeasure in a way that allowed him to avoid a league fine (maybe), as he called it "unfortunate" to see so many penalties.
“It’s unfortunate. It feels like there’s a whole other factor in this game,” Carroll said. “I don’t know. You guys saw it a lot better than I did, but there were just way too many penalties in this game from both sides, and we’ve got to get out of that kind of football.”
The Cowboys were almost as displeased by the officiating as the Seahawks were as Dallas was called for nine penalties that cost them 127 yards.
Of course, Dallas won. So the protests are not as loud.
Solutions? The use of the TV networks and their cameras to help officiate has backfired; calls are no more "clear'' or "obvious'' than they've ever been. Can the NFL just go retro and let refs refs ... and we all live with the calls?
The players are so big ... and "too fast'' ... and in a literally athletic sense, the refs cannot keep up.
The refs remain part-time employees - no other major sports league does it that way - and maybe that takes away from training and focus.
In any event, this much we know: When both teams are griping, most every week ... and when the lead horse of a company that pays $1 billion annual for the Thursday game is griping ... the NFL needs to start out by conceding that the critics are right and that the system is broken.
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