The NFL compounded its epic officiating blunder yesterday by demanding that tens of millions of fans deny what they have seen with their own eyes.
As the controversy over the replacement referees’ botched ending to the Packers-Seahawks game Monday night in Seattle turned into a raging national inferno that even prompted President Obama to weigh in, the league released a belated afternoon statement insisting — against all visible evidence — the call giving Seattle a 14-12 victory was correct.
The unsigned statement from the NFL’s officiating department admitted Seahawks wide receiver Golden Tate should have been called for offensive interference for shoving Packers cornerback Sam Shields — a penalty that would have ended the game.
But that was no consolation to the outraged Packers because the league pivoted quickly and claimed the subsequent ruling that Tate had simultaneous possession of Russell Wilson’s pass with Packers safety M.D. Jennings was correct — despite abundant photo and video proof that Tate had no more than a hand on the ball as Jennings cradled it in the end zone.
“The NFL Officiating Department reviewed the video today and supports the decision not to overturn the on-field ruling following the instant replay review,” the statement said. “The result of the game is final.”
The league’s show of support for a group of overmatched fill-ins that includes refugees fired by the Lingerie Football League — a fact reported by The Post on Aug. 19 — only served to toss gasoline on the flames of protest coming from all corners of the sport in response to the controversial play late Monday night.
The NFL office received more than 70,000 voice mails from enraged fans as of yesterday morning after a Wisconsin state senator posted commissioner Roger Goodell’s direct phone line on Twitter. They received no response from Goodell, who was conspicuously absent from public view and silent all day yesterday.
President Obama even joined the protests, telling reporters at the White House yesterday that he thought the ending was “terrible.”
“I’ve been saying for months, we’ve gotta get our refs back,” the president added.
The embarrassing gaffe, which could ultimately prove costly to the Packers (1-2) in the NFC playoff race because conference records figure heavily in postseason seeding, skyrocketed the pressure on the owners to end their nearly four-month lockout of the referees.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones claimed in a Dallas radio interview that he didn’t watch the game and had received no calls about the ending, but it likely was no coincidence both Goodell and lead NFL attorney Jeff Pash rejoined negotiations yesterday in Manhattan with the referees union and a federal mediator.
Those talks, which began over the weekend, lasted more than 10 hours yesterday — the longest of any recent meeting between the sides.
But the fact the owners were still digging in yesterday despite the money difference amounting to relative pennies for a $9 billion annual enterprise and the seemingly unprecedented wave of anger and blowback from players, coaches and fans alike showed how determined the owners remain to bend the union to their will.
Packers players continued to go ballistic, with offensive lineman T.J. Lang repeatedly posting obscenity-laced rants about the rent-a-refs on Twitter and Aaron Rodgers mocking the league’s statement in a radio interview late yesterday afternoon.
“The game is being tarnished by an NFL that obviously cares more about saving some money than having the integrity of the game diminished a little bit,” Rodgers said.
Rodgers called the league’s statement defending the ruling “garbage” and said the NFL was “still covering their butt here.”
“I mean, come on!” the reigning league MVP said of the statement. “That’s embarrassing.”
The play capped a humiliating weekend overall for the substitute zebras and the owners, who already seemed to have a near-mutiny on their hands from both players and coaches even before referee Wayne Elliott’s crew cost the Packers a game with comical ineptitude crystalized in the photo of two officials standing next to each other making opposite calls.
Bill Belichick and at least three other coaches are facing hefty fines from the league for berating the replacements, with Belichick in the most hot water for making contact with one after a game. The players, meanwhile, can’t have a sympathy strike because of restrictions in their labor deal with the NFL, but appear to be at their wit’s end.
“I love this league and love the game of football, but tonight’s debacle hurts me greatly,” Saints QB Drew Brees wrote Monday night on Twitter. “This is NOT the league we’re supposed to represent.”
bhubbuch@nypost.com