Culprit Ref FINALLY Speaks...

[mraynrand]

You know, the real culprit is Phil Luckett.

The NFL allowing Phil Luckett anywhere near an NFL football field on Sundays is like putting a serial pedophile in a halfway house across from a grade school.

[hoosier]

This summer, Easley reportedly attended a pair of training sessions with the Stars and Stripes Academy for Football Officials in Salt Lake City, which attempts to prepare prospective officials for Division I college football. But Karl Richins, who runs the academy, said his staff found Easley to be unfit for working at the game’s highest levels.

“Our conclusion,” Richins said in a telephone interview, “was that Lance was a good football official given the level he was at, which at that time was juco [junior college] and Division III, and we thought as a staff he . . . wasn’t ready for Division I, let alone the NFL. We hadn’t even talked about that.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports...d_story_1.html

[Pugger]

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/nfl/story/2012/09/26/nfls-regular-officials-still-convening-to-stay-game-ready/57846092/1

[mraynrand]

"I will tell you I've worked over 450 games in this league. I have never seen a simultaneous catch," Hochuli said. "To get four hands on the ball at the same time is a pretty unusual situation.
"I've seen simultaneous recoveries. That's not uncommon. You un-pile the players, they're going after a loose ball and there are two guys who are completely wrapped around the football, and you have a simultaneous recovery. You're going to give the ball to the offense.
"But a simultaneous catch is a hard thing to have."

Excellent summation, councillor!

[Zool]

Well now he's changed his mind. Moron.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/84...-wayne-elliott

[Guiness]

Neat little article. Interesting that he said that now that he knows the rule, he'd probably call it differently. I wonder how the NFL would respond to that if they said anything more about it, seeing as how they replied that it was the correct call.

His comment on the OPI is also revealing, and shows his lack of experience. He was told not to call it on a Hail Mary, leaving me with the impression he would've let an MMA battle go down out there without a flag. An experienced ref would let the bumping and so on occur, but the blatant 2 handed shove to the back that took out 2 defensive players would have been called.

Crazy that his phone number was listed.

[mraynrand]

Well now he's changed his mind. Moron.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/84...-wayne-elliott

Wayne Elliott?

[George Cumby]

Well now he's changed his mind. Moron.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/84...-wayne-elliott

Two things:

1) M3 is a class act
2) Dude finally copped to blowing the call. Better late than never.

[Guiness]

Wayne Elliott?

Ya. He was the crew chief, right?

He got a VM from Mike McCarthy...which means he listened to his voice mails! Wow, can't believe he didn't just delete them all without listening.

[Guiness]

I missed the post by Hoosier above that said he was found to not be skilled enough for Div I, now an article at Sportsline says he realizes that by taking this job he gave up any future chance of advancement at the college level, or maybe any future chance of reffing in college?

Either way, both knew that by signing on to be a replacement official, that would effectively end their advancement as full-time college officials.

“That was the debate on whether I was going to want to give this up,” Core said. “The college commissioners, the college football officiating is controlled by the NFL referees. So we knew crossing the line was going to end the college career.”

I was already they were able to find refs to do this at all. Looks like the pool they dipped into was guys who had already been told they had no future advancement available to them. Well, them and Luckett.

[pbmax]

Easley is the sideline ref who stood by the call. Elliot is the crew chief who said he would not have called simultaneous catch.

[gbgary]

the interview on inside the nfl was pretty revealing...especially when he said they were told not to call pi on a hail mary. it's a free for all evidently.

[wootah]

I don't know if it's already posted somewhere on this board, but here we go:

Ten days after the "Inaccurate Reception" heard around the world, the replacement refs remain in the news.

In a fascinating interview set to air Thursday on Showtime's "Inside the NFL," replacement referee Wayne Elliott admits that his crew erred in calling a touchdown for the Seattle Seahawks.

"I'd probably call interception. I learned a rule by screwing up the rule," Elliott said via USA Today.

Elliott was not in the end zone and did not make the initial call on the play. It was obvious his crew was not positioned correctly and Elliott admits that their grasp of the rulebook was not great. It sounds like the officials were devastated after the game.

"It was quiet. It was like a losing locker room, very little conversation," Elliott said.

It's surprising that Elliott admitted his mistake publicly. What Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy did last week is even more surprising.

"(McCarthy) called me at my house last week because he had heard I was having a rough week with all the calls and everything," Elliott said. "Wanted (me) to know that he thought what I did -- controversial and maybe he didn't agree with it -- (but he thought) I handled it with class."

That's an incredibly classy and gracious gesture by McCarthy. It says a lot about him.

"It was something that really personally gave me some finality to the week," McCarthy told Adam Schein on SiriusXM Radio on Thursday. "It was something I felt was obviously the right thing to do."

Fellow referee Jim Core says all the coaches treated him with respect except for one guy.

"He's college," said Core, not paying Schiano a compliment. "The rest of them (coaches) acted at a different level."

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap100...fter-mnf-gaffe

[gbgary]

inaccurate reception...didn't notice that before. very clever!

[Kiwon]

NEWSFLASH: Lance Easley has been found! He has left the NFL and is working as an umpire for MLB.

He worked the left field line for the Braves-Cardinals one game playoff yesterday.

He called the "Infield Fly" rule two seconds before the ball hit the ground. Yes, and he defended his call as well.