Media cared more about the replacement refs than coaches, players: Replacement ref

Recall when you were young and you thought the media actually reported the news? You know, before they simply started to create it (see Brett Favre, Tim Tebow, et al.). According to retired college-football referee Gerald Wright, who worked as a replacement official during the NFL lockout earlier this season, media types cared more about replacement ref errors than players and coaches did:

There was another unusual call in the Denver-Pittsburgh game. We got to the two-minute warning and Denver scored right at two minutes. The Denver coach wanted to take the two-minute warning before they go for the conversion so they can decide whether to try for two points.

I never read anything that says you can’t have it, so I gave it. It’s not in the rule book. It’s a rule for the TV scheduling.

That didn’t stop the national TV announcers — like Cris Collinsworth. They were all over me. They had a field day.

The media — they were harder on us than the players and coaches.

The replacement officials didn’t have any more incorrect calls than there normally are. If it happens during a regular game, it’s “who cares.” When we were officiating, then it was a different story.

If you screw it up, you screw it up. The announcers are the ones who get paid to talk about it.

NY Post...Confessions of an NFL replacement referee

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