Quote:I've thought about it, and I have a theory as to why this one was bungled.   

 

First of all, these refs are like an all star squad.  It's not a crew that's worked together all season.  

 

It used to be, when someone threw a flag, the referees got together face to face and hashed it out. That gave the other refs time to disagree. But now, they have those earpieces and microphones and that's how they communicate with each other. It supposedly speeds up the game.  

 

So this time, one guy throws the flag, and tells the head ref over their new communication system, pass interference on # whatever. The ref announces it. Then he gets word from another official that they need to pick up the flag, so he picks it up. (That's the official explanation so far.)  

 

The problem is, in the past, the refs would get together in a huddle and hash it out. So the fans would see there was some kind of disagreement.  Now, in the interest of speeding up the game, they don't have to do that.  The fans can't see what's going on.  

 

This introduces another problem. The fans are now free to speculate on who spoke to the head referee in his earpiece. Was it another official?  Someone in New York?  Jerry Jones?  A big time gambler?  

 

I think in the interest of modern technology and speeding up the game, the fans are now in the dark about what happened. 

 

The problem with that theory is Pete Morelli admitted he should have huddled up with the other officials to hash it out. Also, it does not explain Morelli's failure to explain the penalty reversal when he said it's fourth down.

 

The fact that they don't work together every week is not an excuse for the head linesman waiting until after the penalty was announced to tell Morelli he disagreed with the back judge. These guys have to work for at least five years to be eligible for playoff assignments. I think based on Morelli's explanation, both he and the head linesman need to be downgraded.

---