What a complete disgrace. The only good thing to come out of that debacle is that the lockout of real referees will surely come to an end. One of the ESPN announcers (not sure whether it was Mike Tirico or Jon Gruden) said some owners need to speak up because this is affecting their product.

The replacement refs were in way over their heads. As a guy who refereed soccer for a number of years I know how hard it can be to make all the right calls in a fast moving game. The real refs miss some calls, too. But this crew didn't meet even a minimal standard. Most of the attention will go to some really bad calls on the final Seattle drive, directly determining the outcome of the game. But they blew a lot of unnecessary whistles earlier, too. The first half was a joke. You could call a penalty on just about every play in an NFL game. The only problem is no one would want to watch it. Here is what soccer referees are told by the U.S. Soccer Federation in "Advice to Referees on the Laws of the Game." It 's in a pamphlet given to every new referee.

"The Laws of the Game are intended to provide that games should be played with as little interference as possible, and in this view it is the duty of referees to penalize only deliberate breaches of the Law. Constant whistling for trifling and doubtful breaches produces bad feeling and loss of temper on the part of the players and spoils the pleasure of spectators."