Jay Patti

    According to ESPN.com, one third of the American people will take three hours out of their Sunday afternoon to sit down and watch a professional football game at least once a year. With the first several weeks of the 2012 season in the books, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to notice the difference between the professional and replacement officials.

     The National Football League is a professional industry, a business that prides itself on being the best representative of professional football this world has to offer. The replacement officials were an embarrassment for the NFL. With the replacement officials, there was absolutely no certainty at all and at the end of the day, player safety was questioned.

     As former all-pro safety Brian Dawkins said during the strike, “The players are seeing what they can get away with before the referees put their foot down.” This explains the increase in the amount of fights that occurred between the players. Though nothing got too serious, the fights ruined the integrity of the game, and the officials were the only ones who could control it.

     It seems the best officials should be slated to work the primetime, most meaningful games. Certainly, the Green Bay Packers would appreciate this idea as they were stripped of a victory in Seattle on Monday Night Football, perhaps the biggest, most noticed game of the week. A year ago fans were always blaming the pro officials, but now we see how bad things can be with the amateurs officiating the highest level of the sport. The replacement officials did their best, but it did nothing except hinder the game. Roger Goodell saved the NFL by reaching an agreement with the professional officials.