As part of their negotiations with the NFLRA, the NFL wants to establish a bench of officials so they can replace under-performing ones.
They may need to find a replacement crew for the replacement crew that worked last night.
The same officiating crew that had Seahawks-Packers had last week’s Rams-Redskins game, one that devolved into a mess of fights and generally looked out of control.
That crew — referee Wayne Elliott, umpire Marc Harrod, head linesman Mike Peek, line judge Tommy Keeling, side judge Lance Easley, field judge: Richard Simmons, back judge Derrick Rhone-Dunn and replay official Howard Slavin — also worked the Colts-Bears game in the opener, but that one passed by without much notice.
After calling just 10 combined penalties (for 67 yards) in Week One, they followed with 18 total penalties (for 156 yards) in Week Two and 24 (for 245 yards) last night.
The Redskins-Rams game wasn’t the kind of disaster of last night’s game, but it was a mess, with the Redskins claiming dirty hits on Robert Griffin III, and the game turning on Josh Morgan’s personal foul which came at the end of a long day of scrums on the field.
At the rate this crew is going, I’d hate to know what they have planned for an encore.