Dear referees, are we watching the same game? I remember when I was younger, getting introduced to the game of football, I used to see how coaches, players and referees would all yell at each other, and it seemed like the referees were always getting the short end of the stick. I used to think it must be a tough job to have, those poor people in the black and white stripes. They might as well be wearing a giant red target for ridicule and anger. They are just doing their job, right? They are unbiased, right? Well… The game on Sunday, Oct. 30 had the Seahawks pit against the New Orleans Saints and had many fans (and even people who are not fans) taking notice of what was happening on the field. The Seahawks started out very strong. Two touchdowns happened very early on; one from free safety Earl Thomas in the first quarter after running back Mark Ingram from the Saints fumbled. Another touchdown happened in the second quarter after wide receiver Tanner McEvoy passed to running back C.J. Prosise inside the 5-yard line.. On first and goal, it was handed off to running back Christine Michael, who scored. The early 14-3 lead had fans hopeful the Seahawks would dominate the rest of the game. However, my objections aren’t that New Orleans played a worse game than the Seahawks; the Seahawks offence did not perform as well as they could have. My problems lie in the calls the referees were making this past weekend. Some may call me a passionate fan, “She is just angry because they lost.” Or, “Sure, blame it on the refs.” I’m upset when they lose, sure. I’m passionate about it, but my frustrations from last week lies in the blatant disregard of one team in favor of the other. The Saints in general are a pretty penalized team. However, last Sunday they only had two penalties for a total of 10 yards, while the Seahawks had 11 penalties for a total of 76 yards. This is unusual considering that most games have closer numbers when it comes to penalties. Richard Sherman was not shy about letting his feelings on the game be known. "The calls — or the lack thereof — were pretty egregious," [Sherman said, according to an article done by Sheil Kapadia of ESPN,. "It's just tough with the penalties. It's tough when you play a team that's averaging seven, eight penalties a game, and they get called for one [actually two] — an obvious false start in the fourth quarter, which the refs really didn't want to call in the first place." Also, there were a great deal of non-calls during this last game. The Saints did a lot of pick plays, meaning that they pick off a defender so they have a runner that can catch and score a touchdown. Per the NFL rulebook, those pick plays are considered pass interference and should have resulted in a penalty. Of course, the referees cannot be the only ones to blame for the all the penalty calls. Anyone else shocked Earl Thomas ran up to one of the referees and hugged him after the first touchdown?
