Our Long National Nightmare is Over!

I am referring, of course, to the return of the regular refs to the NFL.

The title is tongue in cheek of course, lest anyone think I really do take football that seriously.  But in all seriousness, the NFL was getting pretty hard to watch, even before the proverbial last straw came in the form of a Golden Tate non-catch-but-still-a-game-winning-TD on Monday night.

Taking an objective approach, you had the makings of a very interesting social experiment in all of this.  Week 1 of the season there were some blown calls to be sure, but everything appeared to be running fairly smoothly.  There was increased scrutiny on the missed calls but there was nothing that really elevated the situation to a crisis level or even made it appear that things were headed that way.

But then something started to happen in week 2.  The players started to realize that the replacement refs weren't able to see as much as the regular refs did, so you started seeing a lot more replays where there was a lot of activity away from the play that usually would have drawn a flag in years past.  And as stories (unconfirmed) started emerging about refs commenting to players about their fantasy teams, it became apparent to both the players and the coaches that these refs were still a bit star-struck and intimidated by the stage.  The result was that both the coaches and the players started ratcheting up their antics during the game.  Now after every play there were 3-4 guys from each team lobbying for a flag and both head coaches screaming from the sidelines.  The pace of the game slowed to a crawl as the refs had to constantly huddle together to talk about each call.  And then a couple times a game they would make a mistake in the application of a rule (enforcing a penalty from the original line of scrimmage instead of at the spot of the foul, for example) and the league officials in the booth would have to buzz down to stop play so that the mistake could be corrected.

Predictably, all of these things together just served to keep undermining the confidence of the refs, which in turn just led to worse decisions and more mistakes till it became a positive feedback loop.  By last weekend, the game really started to look and feel drastically different.  I would love to see a side by side comparison of the Sunday night game between the Patriots and Ravens and the AFC championship game from January between the same two teams.  I think it would look like half the rulebook had been changed.  You had defenders basically tackling blockers away from the ball downfield, cornerbacks teeing off on receivers and not getting called for PI, and then barely touching them the next time and drawing a flag.

It all reminds me of the Malcolm Gladwell description of the difference between choking and panicking.  Choking is what a professional does - it's when a skill that they have been naturally good at their entire life and never had to think about before suddenly abandons them and they end up no longer reacting to things but overthinking everything and just making more and more mistakes.  Greg Norman at  the 1996 Masters is the textbook example of this. 

Panic, on the other hand, is the realm of the amateur.  This is what happens when someone gets in over their head and just does not have the knowledge or the skill to cope and, in realizing this, just loses the ability to see things objectively and rationally.  The plane crash and death of JFK Jr.  is a good example.

To me, the replacement refs clearly started to panic and that is what elevated this situation from a minor, tolerable nuisance into a crisis in short order.  You could almost see and feel the fear these officials felt as the scrutiny, criticism, and pressure mounted on them.  And it's not surprising to me in the least that they caved under it.  They were ordinary passengers being asked to fly a 747.  Everything's easy while the plane is flying straight and level, but as soon as warning lights and alarms start going off things deteriorate very quickly.

So with all that having been said, I am both very glad to see the real refs return and I hold absolutely no ill feelings towards the replacement refs.  Tonight's Browns/Ravens game is likely to be the first and only time that a crew of referees get a standing ovation as they are announced.  I wonder how long after that before the first call gets booed.  It's likely to be the shortest honeymoon in history.