The worst thing NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and his billionaire ownership friends can do now is stand on ceremony and ignore Rule 8, Section 1, Article 3, Item 1 in the rules digest belonging to the American public, the one that states: Simultaneous possession of arrogance is subject to review and must be overturned.
How dare Goodell’s NFL insult our intelligence by trying to tell us that aside from the replacement referees blowing the pass interference call in the end zone Monday night at the end of The Greatest Shame Ever Played, contrary to popular belief, our replacement officials aren’t blind, it’s your lying eyes!
Roger Goodell and NFL owners are to blame for Monday night’s debacle in Seattle, writes The Post’s Steve Serby. (AP)
Is it any wonder why, from sea to shining sea, and especially in Green Bay, Wis., a.k.a. Titletown, USA, outraged football fans are asking: Who hijacked our great game?
It isn’t only the bettors who wound up on the wrong side of Packers minus-3 or more, it is everyone who fills the NFL’s coffers by rushing out to buy his or her Tim Tebow jersey, who feels compelled to pay obscene PSL prices for the privilege of watching preseason games that are meaningful only for head coaches trying to evaluate the last fringes of their roster and the longshot desperados trying to reach their improbable dream.
It is the players, who have every right to fear for their safety, who can’t help but wonder whether a game that is too fast and complicated for these replacement refs will inevitably result in too many Mike Utleys. And it is the coaches, who have to be restrained from intimidating these dunces, both verbally and physically.
Everyone deserves better than this.
This one’s on you, commissioner.
NFL DEFENDS RULING DESPITE PUBLIC OUTCRY
EDITORIAL: ROGER GOODELL’S OBLIGATION
PACKERS GUARD UNLOADS AFTER CONTROVERSIAL LOSS
Get your billionaire owners to stop hiding behind the NFL shield over a mere pittance for the real refs in a league slated to take in $9.5 billion in revenues this season, a 7 percent increase over 2011.
If there is a Hall of Fame of Pettiness, then all of you have earned busts.
Twist some arms and twist them now if that’s what it takes. Talk cents to them, because that is a language they understand much more than sense. A cooler head needs to prevail.
Yours.
NFL, OFFICIALS ARE IN NO RUSH TO SETTLE DESPITE DEBACLE
PACKERS-SEAHAWKS RESULTS PRODUCES SURPRISE PAYDAY FOR GAMBLERS AND BOOKIES
JOEL SHERMAN: NFL FANS TO BLAME FOR MESS
Don’t merely meet with the real refs for appearances sake, to humor us, as you did yesterday and last night.
Strike a deal, and strike it now.
There is no way you should in good conscience subject these replacement refs any longer to the howls of disgust and derision from the stands, from the television and radio announcers, from the incensed likes of the Bill Belichicks, from all corners of the NFL fraternity.
This travesty of a mockery of a sham must end today, preferably before these replacement refs are placed in harm’s way tomorrow night in Baltimore, but absolutely in time for this weekend.
The NFL lockout ended only when it became apparent to the powers-that-be that it was starting to get bad for business.
Guess what: The Fail Mary that robbed the Packers on Monday night is bad for business.
You may be beholden to the owners, but you are the face of the NFL at this moment of truth and it isn’t only a black eye, it is a broken nose and a bloody shame and crime.
Integrity has taken a three-week holiday.
Josh Sitton of the victimized Packers, 14-12 “losers” to the Seahawks, was talking about the owners yesterday. “I don’t think they care,” Sitton said. “They know what type of business we have and the fans are going to keep showing up.”
For now. But if the billionaire owners simply yawn and bank on our football addiction to carry them past this stain on their game — our game — then they should ask their baseball owner friends what happened to the game that used to be the national pastime once the steroid cheats — Shambinos — were found to be standing in the batter’s box with 34-ounce Louisville Needles getting ready to bash 450-foot home runs in bunches.
The late, great Pete Rozelle understood better than any sports commissioner anywhere that image is everything. That the marriage of professional football and television would be the perfect love affair.
But what we watched on television Monday night was the Perfect Murder of the game we love.
What’s next, Hulk Hogan playing quarterback?
Bozo the Clown dressed as a zebra with a whistle in his mouth? Oh, sorry, that’s what we have now.
A tweet yesterday on the Green Bay Press-Gazette website:
“The players are taught from their first day as a rookie to ‘Protect the Shield.’ It should be called ‘Protect the Profits’ of the owners.”
A tweet from Eagles fan Rob from Philly:
“No team should lose a game like that. Goodell has so much egg on his face right now he could open an IHOP.”
The NFL has gone from the frying pan into the fire. Extinguish the madness, commissioner. Or the yolk’s on you.
steve.serby@nypost.com