God, I Hate Gene Steratore's Officiating Crew

[FritzDontBlitz]

I was just watching the recording I made of the game, the officiating looks worse than I thought. On the "unnecessary roughness" penalty called on Vernand Morency right after the pooch punt return TD, the kick returner evades the first tackler, trips on the turf and falls, Morency naturally covers him since there was no whistle to indicate the play was over - and is rewarded with a 15 yard penalty?

We all saw the ridiculous penalty right before halftime for pass interference, I'm probably not the only one who thought Steratore was trying to cover up his crews' ineptness with hus ruling after review. But then, I see this on JSO:


Keep it down

When one of the officials told McCarthy on the sideline Sunday that excessive celebration was something the league wanted to curtail and that the Packers' pre-kickoff dance was pushing the limits, the coach put an end to it.

"I had an opportunity to talk to (referee) Gene (Steratore) probably at the next time out, and he said, 'Frankly, we may be over-officiating this situation.' I just said, 'Hey, we'll just cut it out,' " McCarthy said. "I don't want to get a flag over a bunch of guys dancing."

Talk about a bunch of nitpicking nincompoops. Its nice to know that even Steratore thought they were getting carried away.

[Jimx29]

I applaud them for stopping or seriously curtailing all the end zone celebrations.

Act like ya been there before :wink:

[BF4MVP]

I was disappointed when I heard Coach say that when I was watching his press conference video from today..I liked those pre-kickoff dances..Nothing wrong with the home team gettin fired up and gettin the crowd fired up before a kickoff :(

[RashanGary]

Changing the subject

I like that the Packers acctually take pride in their ST's. They have one of the leagues top cover teams and with Krob returning kicks, they might just have one fo the overall best ST's units in the league.

I remember a time, not too long ago, that ST's was almost a dirty word. Now Hawk plays, Woodson plays, Jolly plays. I'm sure there are more, I'm just naming a few starters off the top of my head. These guys acctually seem to embrace it. How long ago was it that Fergy would be whining and no respectable starter would have to play them? They were like the ugly step child of the team. Now they are among the leagues elite. The special team in general is a reason to celebrate.

[SkinBasket]

I thought the officiating was pretty poor all around in our game. Not sure if it's these weekly points of emphasis they're having pushed on them by the league offices or what, but the quality across the league seems sketchier this season. Makes for some frustrating football.

[swede]

The worst call imo was when Nick got flagged for hitting Testaverde after he was out of bounds. Nick was laying on the field with only the top half of his body on the chalk. Vinny runs 10 yards off the field and fell down clumsily and Nick gets the flag?

Gimme a break!

[Zool]

I disagree with your assessment on Morrency. He clearly put his head down and lead with it. Thats what the flag was for IMO not a late hit.

[mraynrand]

I disagree with your assessment on Morrency. He clearly put his head down and lead with it. Thats what the flag was for IMO not a late hit.

IT was a vicious, brutal hit. If Morency had ruptured his spleen and there had been spleen juice squirting all over, people who are pooh poohing the hit would be singing a different tune. The NFL has to clean up tackles where the helmet of the tackler touches the tacklee. Probably should have tossed Morency from the game and he should be out of the league. Zero tolerance, I say.

[Zool]

I disagree with your assessment on Morrency. He clearly put his head down and lead with it. Thats what the flag was for IMO not a late hit.

IT was a vicious, brutal hit. If Morency had ruptured his spleen and there had been spleen juice squirting all over, people who are pooh poohing the hit would be singing a different tune. The NFL has to clean up tackles where the helmet of the tackler touches the tacklee. Probably should have tossed Morency from the game and he should be out of the league. Zero tolerance, I say.

Didnt say I agree with the rule, but thats the rule and its very very specific. If you lead with your head, you're getting a flag.

[rpiotr01]

I'm not even sure it was the leading with the helmet aspect of it. Morency didn't even hit him with his helmet. I think they called it because when the guy fell, Morency could have - and IMO should have - just touched him down, put your hands on his shoulder pads and that's it. He really didn't need to put a licking on him like that when he was down and making no attempt to get up. It was, in other words, "unnecessary roughness", exactly what the penalty was intended to punish.

[Carolina_Packer]

Plus, he made the guy cry and got his uniform dirty and that's just unacceptable.

[GBRulz]

I'm all for cutting out the excessive TD celebrations, but what is wrong with a PRE-GAME dance?

I think the refs need to spend more time on getting the call right than what happens before the game even starts.

[FritzDontBlitz]

I disagree with your assessment on Morrency. He clearly put his head down and lead with it. Thats what the flag was for IMO not a late hit.

IT was a vicious, brutal hit. If Morency had ruptured his spleen and there had been spleen juice squirting all over, people who are pooh poohing the hit would be singing a different tune. The NFL has to clean up tackles where the helmet of the tackler touches the tacklee. Probably should have tossed Morency from the game and he should be out of the league. Zero tolerance, I say.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[MJZiggy]

I'm all for cutting out the excessive TD celebrations, but what is wrong with a PRE-GAME dance?

I think the refs need to spend more time on getting the call right than what happens before the game even starts.

Absolutely. What happens before the opening whistle is not their business.

[HarveyWallbangers]

Outside of the pass interference call (questionable interference, at best Carolina should have gotten the ball at around the 20 not the 7) and the Favre fumble/non-fumble call (I don't think it was clear that he fumbled, but if he did, it was clear Carolina recovered), I thought the officiating was fine.

[FritzDontBlitz]

I disagree with your assessment on Morrency. He clearly put his head down and lead with it. Thats what the flag was for IMO not a late hit.

No, the whistle had not blown to signify the runner was down. Morency's chest hit the guy's upper shoulder pads, helmet never touched the guy. Late hits are after the whistle.

I was reading a sportswriter's article about how instant replay should be used and he cited the weird field goal by Cleveland as prime example. The Refs in that game were not supposed to use replay to evaluate whether the kick was good or not, but they used it anyway. If you have a replay of the Packers/Panthers game, observe the play and you will see that even though Morency lowered his head before landing on the kick returner, his head never touched him.

[Zool]

I rewound it a couple times cause I was pissed at the time. IMO at the least his facemask went into the guys back.

[oregonpackfan]

I'm all for cutting out the excessive TD celebrations, but what is wrong with a PRE-GAME dance?



Supposedly, the U. of Hawaii football team is on the brink of being called for a Pre-game "Dance."

They have a pregame ritual which is a Polynesian dance that warriors used before going into battle. "Warriors" is the new mascot name for Hawaii.

Some officials have warned the team about this dance and it has created some controversy in the NCAA.

[rpiotr01]

I'm all for cutting out the excessive TD celebrations, but what is wrong with a PRE-GAME dance?



Supposedly, the U. of Hawaii football team is on the brink of being called for a Pre-game "Dance."

They have a pregame ritual which is a Polynesian dance that warriors used before going into battle. "Warriors" is the new mascot name for Hawaii.

Some officials have warned the team about this dance and it has created some controversy in the NCAA.

Is it similar to the Haka, performed by the new zealand rugby team?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd0kDxP04eI&feature=related

[Badgerinmaine]

Supposedly, the U. of Hawaii football team is on the brink of being called for a Pre-game "Dance."

They have a pregame ritual which is a Polynesian dance that warriors used before going into battle. "Warriors" is the new mascot name for Hawaii.

Some officials have warned the team about this dance and it has created some controversy in the NCAA.

Is it similar to the Haka, performed by the new zealand rugby team?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd0kDxP04eI&feature=related

It is. I saw them all mentioned on a news story (either NBC or CBS News) about a high school in Texas that performs the Haka before games. It was a tradition brought by students of Samoan ancestry and the rest of the team is really into it now.

[Bossman641]

I'm all for cutting out the excessive TD celebrations, but what is wrong with a PRE-GAME dance?

I think the refs need to spend more time on getting the call right than what happens before the game even starts.

I totally agree. This makes me angry just thinking about it. The kickoff team jumps around to get THEMSELVES pumped up. I know if I was running 60 yards to throw myself into a 800 pound wedge I would want to be pumped up as well. There is no embarassing the other team, just having some fun.

What's next? Are they going to tell teams that they can't huddle up before the game and yell?

[swede]

I don't really remember noticing this Steratore guy before.

Most NFL officiating crews are capable of a bad call.

But this guy seemed to enjoy sticking a bad call down the crowd's throat.

Being professional, confident and resolute are fine qualities in a ref.

Being a dick is not.