There is no reason you shouldn’t know the rules by week 3. It’s inexcusable. There are fans at home who have a better grasp of the NFL rulebook than these replacerees.

I was sympathetic to the new refs before, because they were thrown into a bad situation. However, they’ve had 6 weeks to learn the rulebook (4 weeks of preseason, 2 weeks of regular season).

I couldn’t imagine making so many mistakes after 6 weeks of training and hands on experience, let alone expect to keep that job.

Goodell should be ashamed for letting this continue. I believe $50m was the gap between the union and the NFL, and it’s a small price to pay to preserve the integrity of the game, the safety of the players, and to please the fans who help the NFL make BILLIONS.

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ITA and will expound on your point. Not only did they have the 4 preseason games as “training time” and have the experience of their officiated two games previous before this weeks games, they had from the moment they were hired, during the onset of the referee lockout, to learn the rulebook.

I actually think the officials hurt the 49ers today. Ponder was down before he crossed the goal line & the personal foul penalty late in the 3rd quarter should not have been called either.
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You’re just mad because the Vikings have already exceeded your 1-15 prediction and did so by beating a team that kicked the crap out of your beloved packers. How about you go hide your shame on the Packers threads and leave Vikings threads alone for a while.

They said yes.

So they called over the ref who agreed to review the play.

No bullying. By anyone.

But please carry on with your ignorant anti-Harbaugh invective. I’m sure it makes you all feel real big.

I’m guessing a bunch of 0-3 Saints fans with their panties in a twist.

Or the “Illegal block in the back” by the kicking team on the first kickoff, I mean really, what was that?

Harbaugh had the stones to try it twice – what’s his deal?

“Our coach told us not to worry about the officials,” running back Frank Gore said last week.”Go out there and do our job and let him take care of the officials, and that’s what we do.”
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This is quoted from San Fran. Chronicle…..Someone needs to knock Harbaugh down a notch and let’s hope the NFL gives him a significant fine for his b.s. today and also that they decide it’s time to settle with the fulltime officials. This game and the saints*/chiefs game were an embarrassment to the NFL

Remember this is football, where despite the Faith Hill theme songs and Tebowmania antics, the main focus is knocking the snot out of the other guy…..in this environment, rabid personalities like Harbaugh (and his evil twin Greg Schiano) can thrive….if they were calm, rational, reasonable people they wouldn’t be football coaches…..

Regarding the refs, aside from the problems with rules interpretations (why are they not getting help from the booth ?), they seem to make about the same number of errors as the regular refs, although they seemed to struggle with downfield calls this week……