The NFL and Replacement Refs

I caught the end of the Seattle - Green Bay game tonight and after listening to all of the post game discussions I felt compelled to write something about the situation with the officials. 

First off - yes, off course the refs blew the game tonight and cost Green Bay the win.  Even the most diehard Seahawks fan would have a hard time claiming they deserved to win with a straight face.  It wasn't just the last call either.  The replacement officials blew a series of calls down the stretch, all in Seattle's favor.  They were awful tonight, but it shouldn't be a huge surprise that guys who officiate D-III college football are struggling a little with the rules and speed of the NFL.  It's not the replacement ref's fault - they're doing the best they can.

What I want to talk about is WHY we have replacement refs at all.  The paraphrased comment from almost every media member after the game was "If this doesn't get the NFL to bring back the regular refs I don't know what will".  What this tells you is that the media (even Steve Young with his law degree from BYU), much like 99% of the fans, either have no idea what they're talking about or are being intellectually dishonest when it comes to this issue.  Allow me to educate:

·         The first thing that confuses people is the term "lock-out".  People hear that the refs are "locked-out" by the league which paints the picture that the NFL isn't letting them come to work.  Lock-out is simply legal semantics.  The refs are on strike, but because the NFL is based in New York - a "forced unionization" state - they cannot legally allow the regular refs, who are unionized, to return to work without a collective bargaining agreement signed.  If the NFL were based in a right-to-work state such as South Carolina for example, they wouldn’t have to be "locked-out" and would simply be on strike because there would be no state legal issue with allowing individual refs to "cross the picket line" so to speak and return to work. 

·         So what is the NFL Referee Union striking about?  Well, first of all they want more money.  No surprise there - collective bargaining units always want more money.  Actually, this isn't really a sticking point as the NFL has agreed to a substantial raise for officials.  What is a sticking point, however, is the NFL refusing to grant pensions for "part-time" officials.  They still want to continue the pensions for all full-time officials but not for the part-timers (by the way, the NFL wants all the officials to be full time).  They also want to add at least one more crew, and possibly up to 21 new officials.  The union is dead set against this.  Now why would a union EVER be opposed to ADDING members?  Simple - if there are more officials, it allows the NFL to "bench" some crews from week to week and to have replacement refs trained to replace older officials who might retire.  Another issue that has the union digging their heels in is that the NFL wants to evaluate officials performance.  Currently, the officials self-evaluate.  In other words, the refs don't want their boss to be able to evaluate them based on performance and decide who works from week to week based on those performance evaluations.  

Don't blame the NFL for not having the regular refs - blame the regular refs. 

As a final thought:  I found it ironic that Green Bay - whose state basically "occupied" the capitol building last year to defend their status as a forced unionization state was beaten tonight by a labor strike (although to be fair, Washington is also a forced unionization state so I guess the Washington labor unions beat the Wisconsin labor unions 14-12).:-)

2001 BMW X5 4.4i

Random Vehicle Blog tonight…….spinning…….and the selection is….

2001 BMW X5 4.4i

It's probably not correct to call the X5 a truck.  In fact, BMW doesn't refer to the vehicle as an SUV because it's not designed with the "U" (utility) in mind.  I loved this thing for what it was - a sports car with a truck body.  This one looked great with the 18" chromed rims and a very striking white / black color combo.

The X5 handles like a sports car and accelerated better than any SUV I'd owned to that date.  The interior is virtually like any and every BMW sedan you have seen, just a bit taller.  The rear storage compartment isn't useless by any means, but you won't be hauling sheets of plywood back there.  For the urban professional who still wants to carry a pet or other small items around, this truck has an unbeatable coolness factor.

I sold this truck to a doctor in St. Louis after about a year.  I actually bought another one in '05 with 20" rims, but never took a single picture of it so it won't make the Random Vehicle Blog.

Baywood Country Club

Baywood Country Club

Pasadena, Texas

Baywood Country Club (and I use ‘country club’ VERY loosely) is – I mean was – a horrible course.  It was so bad that it no longer exists.  I can remember this place being ok in the 90’s, but it went downhill fast in its dying years.

Barry and I played a number of rounds here through the years due to its proximity to my house and affordable rates.  The last time we teed it up here should have been an omen as we basically had the place to ourselves.

Nel hitting her pretty little pink ball out of the rough.  I know she’s in the rough because there is actually grass. 

Here I am eyeing yet another perfect approach shot :-).

This is one of my favorite pictures.  Barry (with Gina) is waving the white flag to surrender after being assaulted yet again by Branelle.  For some reason on this day, no matter where Barry was in relation to Nel’s swing, she had the uncanny ability to hit it at him – even if he was parallel and 100 yards away!  It was great!

Here’s Nel looking all innocent about the whole thing.

 

So with this tee shot on 18 I bid a somewhat sad farewell to Baywood Country Club.  It wasn’t much, but I hate to see golf courses close – especially those near my home.  The layout had potential, but the funds just weren’t there to maintain it.  We all hit the 19^th hole to “pour one for my Baywood homies”.

Branelle – Gina - Barry