Monday Night Football: What Experts Are Saying About Controversial Finish

When we look back on the story of the 2012 NFL season, the finish between the Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks will be first and foremost on everyone's mind. 

Packers cornerback M.D. Jennings intercepted a Russell Wilson Hail Mary pass at the end of the game that Seahawks wide receiver Golden Tate was able to get his hands on after they hit the ground. This led to a lot of confusion with the referees, who debated for what felt like forever and declared it a touchdown. 

One referee was signaling touchdown while another signaled a touchback, indicating an interception. Chaos is reigning supreme in the NFL right now, as the regular officials remain locked out with their negotiations at an impasse.

Everyone had an opinion, mostly negative, about this final decision, what it mean and what the NFL needs to do about it.

We have scoured the web to find the best opinions from the best experts, as well as giving our take on what everyone is saying. 

"Officially Lost"

As you can imagine, the people in Milwaukee are turning red and getting their pitchforks and torches ready. 

Bob McGinn of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel created the perfect headline, which is the title of this particular slide, for the whole mess that everyone is talking about right now. 

Synopsis

The referees handed the Seahawks a victory after Golden Tate stole the ball. It was the end of a long, grueling, heartbreaking game for a Packers team that seemed lost and overwhelmed by everything going on in this game. 

Quote of the Article

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In the press box, Packers President Mark Murphy quietly watched the television replays alongside general manager Ted Thompson.

After (replay official Howard) Slavin's ruling confirmed the call by Easley, Murphy approached Mike Kensil, the NFL observer who was seated just a few seats down from him. Murphy asked about the replay process, and Kensil reminded him that Slavin was not a replacement.

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Our Take

It is baffling that everyone could be so confused by this play, including the replay official. I understand that, for lack of a better term, the tie goes to the runner, but this wasn't a tie. Jennings clearly had the ball in his possession before Tate got a hand on it.  

The picture of one referee signaling touchdown and the other signaling touchback will be the image of the NFL in 2012. 

The Almighty Asterisk

Whenever something happens in sports that we don't like, or is so egregious it warrants some kind of review, we bring out the asterisks. Baseball players get busted for performance-enhancing drugs? Asterisk! Ineligible player is on the field? Asterisk! Referees screw up a call? Asterisk!

Bleacher Report's own Dan Levy makes a compelling argument for the asterisk after the Packers-Seahawks game, basically because the Packers did win the game, just not in the box score. 

Synopsis

The NFL's lack of urgency in negotiating with the locked out officials and negligence in properly preparing the replacements has ruined the integrity of the game. A lot of blame can be pushed around, but the league, led by Roger Goodell, deserve the brunt of it. 

Quote of the Article

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The NFL brought this on itself. If Roger Goodell has the power to suspend players he feels hurt the integrity of his league, he should look in the mirror and give himself a few days off to realize what this penny-pinching nonsense with the referees union has done to the game.

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Our Take

The league has empowered these referees. Rightly or wrongly, the result is what it is. Anyone who watched the game knows that it was absolutely the wrong call. But nothing can be done to change the result. 

The asterisk won't change the result of the game, though it will provide some context for the game. We need drastic action taken to get the focus back on the players, not the officials, but what happened happened and nothing will change it. 

The Tipping Point

Naturally, the first thing that people had to say about the call involved the locked out officials. We have been screaming for the owners to work out a deal with them for three weeks with no significant movement. 

Will Brinson of CBS Sports believes that the end of this game, which could have postseason implications for both teams, has to be the final nail in the coffin to get the regular referees back. 

Synopsis

The league can no longer afford to trust these officials with its game. We are seeing things on the field that we never have before. It is hurting the integrity of the sport and clouds everything going on on the field. 

Quote of the Article

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Terms like "fabric of the game" and "integrity of the game" got thrown around too much during the early portions of this labor standoff. But those terms are finally applicable. It's hard to imagine that the league can keep going along with the replacement officials now that a game's been decided by a group of guys in stripes who are clearly overwhelmed with the speed, pace and general management of the NFL game.

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Our Take

We are past the tipping point of what the NFL can tolerate with these replacement officials. This was just confirmation of something we knew back in Week 1. If this does lead directly to a deal between the owners and regular refs, which I don't think it will, then I guess something good came of it. 

Justification

Throughout the course of this referee lockout, we have been waiting for that one play that would actually decide a game to see how the replacements would handle it. We finally got it in primetime on Monday night, and unsurprisingly it was botched. 

As Jim Litke of the Associated Press (via Detroit Free Press) wrote, the NFL deserves exactly what it got at the end of this game. 

Synopsis

Since the NFL has been in no rush to get its officials back on the field, chaos was always going to reign supreme. It was just a question of when we would see an ending that was so bad the NFL would not be able to spin it. 

Quote of the Article

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The reaction was predictable, overwhelmingly negative, and swift. Anyone still have questions about the integrity of the game? Thought so. 

Let’s put it this way: If the NFL were a hamburger chain, Goodell would have been fired on the spot. 

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Our Take

When you have a game as close as this one, with a team like the Packers battling just to take the lead at the end of the game and having it taken away from them by officials who really have no business being on an NFL field, you are asking for trouble. 

The league did get exactly what it deserved. Hopefully the criticism keeps coming, because this is 100 percent inexcusable. 

A Cleanup and an Apology

Here is what we all want to see from the NFL and Roger Goodell. Everyone loves to hate him for one reason or another, now because he is the face of the owners, who really are to blame for the lockout, he needs to stand up and say something. 

Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports wants to see Goodell come down off his high horse, admit there have been problems of ridiculous proportions and do something about it. 

Synopsis

The NFL needs to get all of its ducks in a row, find a way to come to some agreement with the officials, then hold a press conference where Goodell falls on his sword and admit defeat with this whole process. He has to take control of his league sooner rather than later. 

Quote of the Article

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It's the owners who are locking out the refs and must sign off on a contract. And it is the owners who employ Goodell. But at some point, Goodell has to lead his bosses. That's the mark of a great commissioner, and make no mistake, Roger Goodell believes he is a great commissioner.

A great commissioner doesn't stand around and let his league continue on as a laughingstock.

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Our Take

Goodell will do many things in his career as NFL commissioner, but he is not going to admit he is wrong with anything. Everything for him is an opportunity to enhance his legacy. He does not have the apology gene in him. Plus, this is not exactly his fault, so why should he apologize?

He works for the owners and this is what the owners want right now. Goodell doesn't have a lot of jurisdiction here. 

How Much Does the NFL Care?

Here is where we reach the apex of the entire matter. This is the question that everyone has to be considering right now, as we continue to debate the outcomes of games, how safe players really are, what calls can possibly go wrong next week, etc. 

Kevin Seifert of ESPN.com is asking the sports-loving world how much it really bothers the NFL owners to see the game basically falling apart at the seams because of these officials and this call in particular. 

Synopsis

The NFL is a well-oiled machine that keeps on going no matter what happens with anything else. It is going to take a lot for fans to stop watching and paying to go to games altogether, so how much urgency does there really have to be?

Quote of the Article

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But the NFL's stance was built in part on the flawed belief that it could cover well enough for the time being. It could not, of course, and its willingness to allow the arrangement to continue revealed an economic hubris reserved for only the biggest of American corporations. Ticket sales have remained steady and television ratings have continued to set records, providing no big-picture incentive for the league to cave to its regular officials' demands. 

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Our Take

As strange as this sounds, fans have enabled the NFL to get away with this lockout. We keep watching, so how bad can things really be? I'm not saying that is how we feel, I am just trying to look at this the way the owners do. 

Seifert is absolutely right to ponder whether the NFL has to care about what happened on Monday night. It is a hard question to ask, yet we have three weeks of ample evidence suggesting that the league believes it can get away with this for the time being. 

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