Are We Denying That NFL Referees Are Fans Too?

On Sunday, the NFL banned a replacement official from working the New Orleans Saints and Carolina Panthers showdown because it was discovered that he had shown an allegiance to the Saints on his Facebook page. 

Are we truly going to deny that NFL referees are fans? 

The replacement official in question, Brian Stropolo, was pulled from the game after ESPN and the NFL discovered pictures of Stropolo in Saints' attire, according to Chris Mortensen of ESPN. 

It is a bit disheartening that the NFL did not discover this tidbit of information about their employee until a few hours before kickoff, especially considering the current climate between the NFL and its locked-out officials. 

While having a referee that is a fan of a specific team sounds horrible in that he could potentially help his team win, part of being a professional referee is having enough professionalism and integrity to be objective no matter the circumstances. 

It is ridiculous for the NFL to hire replacement officials—who have never coached at the NFL level and have been passionate fans of the game their entire live—to set aside any fan affiliations when called up in rare circumstances. 

To make matters worse, is the NFL expecting its regular officials to not be fans of any team?

We are talking about men who have made football their lives; it is ridiculous to expect them to not follow any teams at all. 

If the NFL is serious about not having referees who are fans of a particular team call that team's game, a policy should be implemented to identify them as fans of one team or another. 

The integrity of the regular NFL officials hasn't been questioned, just their competence. Until now, referees being fans of NFL teams has never truly been brought up. 

Now that the issue is in the spotlight, the NFL is going to have to take action to prevent this from happening again. 

NFL referees are fans of the game just like all of us. It is unrealistic to expect anything less from the men in stripes. However, it should be transparent between both parties to provide the highest quality product possible and to prevent an NBA-caliber controversy. 

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