We’ve gotten our first tastes of life with replacement officials over the last week or so and that’s led plenty of people to raise concerns about the effect they will have on the coming season.
Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz said the group working the Giants-Jaguars game made a “mind-boggling” call, Raiders defensive end Richard Seymour questioned their ability to do the job and Patriots coach Bill Belichick intimated that he agreed with former NFL V.P. of officiating Mike Pereira’s belief that the replacement officials undermine the integrity of the game. Belichick’s quarterback has a different opinion.
Tom Brady said in an interview with WEEI that he isn’t spending much time thinking about the background of the men (and woman) throwing the flags.
“Whoever’s out there is out there. I really couldn’t care less who’s calling the game. I gotta go out there and do my job as best I can,” Brady said, via SportsRadioInterviews.com.
Short of taking some kind of labor action through the NFLPA, there’s not much players can do to change the current impasse between the league and the regular officials. Since that’s unlikely, Brady’s approach is probably the best one for players to take since worrying about what officials will do during a game is a surefire way to wind up blowing your responsibility on a given play or getting hurt because your head isn’t totally in the game going on around you.