So, what does this season mean to you?

[Patler]

The debacle that has become the NFL this year is really no different than the season in which replacement players played. I watched that year, for something to do, but it was largely meaningless to me because of the situation. The teams playing simply were not the teams of the NFL during the strike, and when the real teams came back, it wasn't the same because of the influence of replacement player games and the shortened season.

The same is true this year. With questionable games for at least one-fourth of the season next week, the season loses all legitimacy.

The teams and players are right, but the game is not NFL football. It has about as much legitimacy for me as arena football or any other bastardization of pro football. You can not watch a game this year without questionable calls or actions by the officials that have significant impact on the game outcome. It happens game after game. Bad calls are just a small part of it. The inconsistency and hesitancy make games hard to watch. The mistakes make outcomes farcical.

The season has lost meaning for me.

[Joemailman]

I think it's still salvageable. Largely though, I think you're right so far. It doesn't feel like NFL football.

[mmmdk]

The NFL 2012-12 season is forever tarnished; let Sealiars win it as they fucking deserve it.

[mmmdk]

Nobody should earn the Lombardy Trophy this season; instead award the Golden Godell Trophy to the Seattle Sealiars !

[Patler]

I've been on the winning side of bad calls. When the dust settles, it never feels very good. I have almost felt better, or at least more honorable, when on the losing side.

[KYPack]

This whole deal might turn out a big positive. When our stubby coach gets up in front of the guys and gives the old "let's take this shit into our hands so the refs can't screw us" pep talk, he's gonna have 60 guys that will be nodding their heads.

With clenched jaws.

if you could buy emotions, any coach out there would go buy a ton of anger.

Well, the boys are pissed now, so let's channel it and get after 'em!

[Patler]

This whole deal might turn out a big positive. When our stubby coach gets up in front of the guys and gives the old "let's take this shit into our hands so the refs can't screw us" pep talk, he's gonna have 60 guys that will be nodding their heads.

With clenched jaws.

if you could buy emotions, any coach out there would go buy a ton of anger.

Well, the boys are pissed now, so let's channel it and get after 'em!

I don't mean the impact of last night for the Packers, I mean your feelings for the season as a whole. If the replacement officials stay, even if the Packers go on to win the Super Bowl, the season will have an asterisk in my mind.

[wootah]

True KY. Soccer coaching legend Rinus Michels aid in his book on teambuilding that nothing brings a group together like having a common enemy. I think we've got that one covered now.

[ThunderDan]

All I can think as a season ticket holder is if this costs the Packers home playoff games that I should go to I will be pissed.

[mraynrand]

I don't mean the impact of last night for the Packers, I mean your feelings for the season as a whole. If the replacement officials stay, even if the Packers go on to win the Super Bowl, the season will have an asterisk in my mind.

Hardly.* No one will care, at all, unless something like what happened last night happens in a playoff game. The replacement players were a whole different animal.



*Well, I can't say what will remain in your mind, but I doubt many will even remember the officials several years from now. Do you remember the last time there were replacement officials?

[denverYooper]

The NFL 2012-12 season is forever tarnished; let Sealiars win it as they fucking deserve it.

They won't.

[mmmdk]

All I can think as a season ticket holder is if this costs the Packers home playoff games that I should go to I will be pissed.

It will.

[mmmdk]

They won't.

Bounty Hunters won it,
Neo England Spygaters has won several
& why not Sealiars?

[denverYooper]

It will.

That's part of it. This is a big conference game against another potential playoff team. This very likely has implications down the road. I think that the Packers will be "fine" in the end and make the playoffs because they have a good team but there is a very good chance this affects positions and other teams as well.

[pbmax]

It is still to be determined. The narrative about the replacement players in 87 is that it was disastrous to watch but people still tuned in, the NFL looked like it could continue on and make enough money to continue to squeeze the players. The reality is that the TV ratings spiked in the first week and then started to fall until Week 3 of replacement ball was falling behind the normal TV rating trendline. I think I have read that by that third week, there was a 20% decline in audience, but that the relative success (or perhaps lack of failure) of the first two weeks really discouraged the players, who started to trickle back in which ended the strike.

The NFL might have been tarnishing its Shield for the past three weeks, but this was the first game where a call (or three) led directly to a poor outcome. This has the media all clamoring for the end of the replacements. But its only one significant blow. It might weaken the softest of the owners (let's call them the Talc of owners). But the medium liners (Apatite) aren't going to cave on one bad game outcome. And the hardliners (Corundum or Diamond) aren't going anywhere.

If there is another terrible outcome in the next two weeks, then I think the season will be considered similar to a strike year and the owners will be in trouble (both bargaining and reputation). And talk about a lost season might start. But if it improves without calamity, this will be considered a horrible aberration not applicable to the rest of the games, no matter how many times teams get 4 timeouts.

Not many people hold the Redskins 3 Super Bowl wins against them even though each was in a strike shortened year.