back on inside the league. Michaels. Oh and
lavar And we haven't forgotten about this hot topic.
Time to talk about the officiating or lack thereof in
the National Football League this past weekend? Let's begin
with the big controversy between the Giants and the commanders
in the final minute of that game On sunday,
Terry McLaurin was hit with an illegal formation penalty that
wiped out a touchdown for Washington after it appeared that
the official confirmed to the Washington receiver that he was
lined up correctly before the snap. That's just one
example of some inconsistent officiating practices this season thus far
. So let me start with you. There's the
judgment calls on the sideline with catches roughing the passer
, things like that. But what is the biggest
issue facing officiating this season, man? It's a
ton. I mean in that one that you just
named with Terry McLaurin. I mean, I think
the biggest thing right there is just humility. You
made a mistake. You probably are aware of it
, especially if you say, yeah, you're good
. You threw the flag, go to the judge
. Uh, and, and the white hat and
then say, hey man, that was a mistake
and pick up the flag. It's as simple as
that. But I think over the overall issue is
it's a couple of things, it's a lack of
transparency, right? How, how these guys being
graded outside of them not being able to go to
the playoffs? What is the penalty? Right?
Are you not being able to work as many games
as you thought, right, Are we gonna elevate
somebody up that's trying to get in this, right
? Are we gonna transition to maybe a younger crew
? Um, I think it is one of the
big things that we gotta have just creating that transparency
for the rest. And so people understand, I
think also from the NFL's perspective, I understand player
health and safety and I'm the first one to raise
my hand. I really like what the rules went
, but I think we went a little bit far
too far to the left, especially when we talk
about protecting these quarterbacks at some point, we gotta
realize as well as these receivers that they make a
decision to give up their right to protection when they
decided to catch the ball instead of, Hey,
let me get out of the way of this defender
coming to get me or I'm gonna throw this ball
and stand in this pocket and, and let this
defender hit me or no, let me just get
down and and not get hit right. And so
I think there needs to be a little bit more
coming back to the middle. Uh, and making
this game, the physical game that people all grew
up in love and make it as safe as possible
as we do that. Where do you stand on
this lavar is the officiating actually worse this year than
in years past or it's just more visible right now
. There's always, it's a necessary evil mike.
If the referees are always going to be a part
of the game case closed, people have to get
used to it. It's, it is a part
of that. What do they say? They're part
of the field right there, part of the field
. So just like field conditions, if they're poor
, if they're great, whatever it may be,
you gotta make sure, yeah, the proper spikes
on the proper bottoms, you got to make sure
that you're prepared to, to deal with any type
of conditions and that exists with referees. You're not
going to get around it. There's always going to
be something they were complaining when there was head slapping
and and clothesline. Ng they were complaining when you
could horse collar and do different things. They were
complaining when guys didn't get in on opportunity to catch
the ball and we're getting hit. Now we have
all of these different terms that describe it defenseless like
that. You're defenseless. If you're turned around and
somebody clips you, you know what? That used
to be a call that really matter clipping, wow
, go figure. But now everything is defenseless.
I'm with joe on this one. You come out
on the field, you're, you should be defending
yourself. Don't talk to me about defenseless. Talk
to me about courage. That's what's the problem with
our society right now is that we don't have enough
backbone. We don't have enough grit, we don't
have enough intestinal fortitude that's being applied here. Oh
, let him catch the ball. Why? Because
if you hit them, you are impeding the safety
of a defenseless receiver. What? Hey, If
you don't want to catch the ball, then defend
yourself. Don't go get the ball, don't go
get the ball. But all that stuff being said
, referees are always going to make calls. They're
always going to be a part of the game.
Everybody out there deal with it. All right.
Deal with it. That's all. Just deal with 00:04:23.800 --> it.