Continuing the Umpire Ejection Fantasy League "Other Sports" coverage, we turn to the National Football League as they head into their final week of preseason games after a summer long lockout.
Referee and Crew Chief Walt Coleman ejected New York Giants running back Brandon Jacobs and New York Jets defensive linemen Muhammad Wilkerson for fighting with 8:37 left in the third quarter of the Jets-Giants preseaon game on Monday. After Eli Manning completed a pass to Mario Manningham on 2nd & 6 for a Giants first down, Jacobs and Wilkerson began to scuffle. Replays indicate Jacbos threw the first punch and Wilkerson responded by punching Jacobs. This call is correct under UEFL Rule 6.b.ii.e., which governs ejections for Fighting.* As Coleman noted in his penalty announcement, both penalties were disqualification penalties and offset (under NFL rules these penalties offset; under NFHS rules, temporal order of the unsporting actions would dictate the order they were enforced). At the time of the penalties & disqualification, the Jets were leading, 7-3. The Jets ultimately won the contest, 17-3.
These are Walt Coleman's first and second ejections of the 2011 preseason.
*This call is correct under UEFL Rule 6.b.ii.e.
Wrap: Jets vs. Giants 8/29/11 Recap
Video: Jacobs, Wilkerson DQ'ed
These are not professional officials in any sense of the word. Even if a guy works 10 years in college football before he gets to the NFL, he still only has about 150 games under his belt.
ReplyDeleteCan you imagine if MLB allowed umpires to work the big leagues after only working 150-160 games in the minors??
Secondly, NFL vs College has so many slight rule changes ( 1 foot VS 2 feet on a catch) how can an official be expected to get that call right after being in college all those years?
The NFL is no sport, it's business. And in a business the bottom line is profit. Having professional officials would cost a lot of money. No way the NFL will ever pay their officials a full time salary for working 16-20 weeks of the year.
The sport is a pure joke, and the officials are the punchline.
You take beer out of this equation, no body would watch. After I quit drinking 10 years ago, then NFL became a back round noise for me. For me it just became an excuse so I could start drinking at 11am, and stop at Midnight. And I always hated Monday Nite Football because I had to wait until about 4pm to start the refreshments. It would have looked funny if I was in the bar at Noon on a Monday, and then someone said, what ya doing? I couldn't say, getting ready for MNF.
@Anonymous 5:07PM
ReplyDeleteThe dictionary disagrees with you:
pro·fes·sion·al [pruh-fesh-uh-nl]
adjective
1.
following an occupation as a means of livelihood or for gain
One foot or two feet...oh my, yes, I would never be able to remember that difference. Because it is clearly so difficult...er, no, wait, that's actually pretty easy. Come on, at least pick a more complex example to make your point with.
Also, I don't drink and I watch football.
The same can be said of baseball re: it's business. You're still getting multi-million $ contracts, for goodness sakes, the General Manager works in a place called the "front office." That's clearly business terminology because it's clearly a business and money game. That's what professional sports are: sports + money. Amateur sports are sports + no money, or at least, a lot, lot less.
ReplyDeleteAn NFL Official is a professional sports official because he officiates in a professional sports league. Professional sports, by definition, means money, which invariably means business.
Well, then when I umpire for $17per game, then I'm a professional.
ReplyDeleteYou both have missed his point. COMPARED to baseball, the NFL official is not a professional. Did you see the comparison between the level of training each of those sport gives to it's new officials before they are hired?
Why do the NFL guys have other jobs besides Sunday's?
Name another "professional" in any field, any field on earth, that has to have a second source of income, or 2nd job. And the 2nd job is more time consuming, and pays more.
let me repeat:
A professional who works more in another field, and makes more money in another field, than the field he's considered to be a professional.
There are some good officials who work football, there's no doubt. I'm not knocking the guys, I'm knocking the system, the NFL, and the sport itself as an evil empire. It's those 3 I take issue with, they are the Haliburton of sports. I have no issue with the dedication of the guys working, it's just that, with the money they make, the time they spend (on the clock, not on their own), and the fact they work 1 day a week, it's unfair to say the NFL guys are equal to the MLB guys.
I never could figure out how Red Cashion was allowed to work Cowboy games. I never atcually cared, but I remember my east coast friends going nuts about how Red would be on a MNF cowboy game.
Wow. I never expected this topic to go this way, but while we're at it... I'm one who believes the NFL guy to be a professional official, just as the MLB guy is a professional. The NFL plays what, 16 games in a regular season while baseball plays 162? In my opinion, you can't really give the NFL guys the same amount of training when they only play about a tenth of the games that baseball plays. I think you have to go ahead and think, if MLB seasons are 10x longer games-wise, then MLB Umpires should have 10x more real game experience than NFL guys. Simply because the opportunity is there in baseball to play more games than in football. I can't fault the NFL official for not working as much as the MLB official when the NFL itself only plays X number of games.
ReplyDeleteAs far as officiating-dom goes, a pro- official is considered an official who works at the professional level. The NFL is considered the professional level because their players are paid millions of dollars, just like MLB, just like NBA, NHL, etc. When an official is called "amateur," that means he officiates at the amateur/rec level. When an official is "D1," he's an NCAA D1 guy, etc. It has to do with the leagues the official serves, NOT how the official actually makes his money.
What was the QoC? haha
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to add, it's my opinion that NFL officials are not professionals. I never said it was a fact. Your not going to change my mind, why the need to prove me wrong? Neither of the posts that disagreed, could site an instance where a so called "professional" was really a part-time employee. Lawyers, Boxers, Poker Players, Golfers, Doctors, NHL officials, MLB, NBA, the list goes on and on. I understand the word professional does cover all the major sports officials, and understand that the level is professional. I just cannot categorize NFL officials as "professionals". This is all the NFL's fault. These guys should be paid as full-timers, and should be spending the season only on football. How? not sure, maybe working games in addition to Sundays. Maybe the NFL sets up Thursday passing scrimmages, then guys come in and work. I don't have the answers, but it's still my opinion there not professionals, and it's not their fault.
ReplyDeleteProfessionalism has NOTHING to do with earning a buck...it is all about attitude, demeanor, and appearance. I think of myself on the baseball field as a professional, treat others that way, and in turn, expect it back. And that exists whether I am getting paid sixty plus mileage, or helping out with the local summer rec league.
ReplyDeleteGood for you Bill, that's a good attitude to have. I use it myself. However, as much as you conduct yourself in a professional manner, you are not a professional umpire. Acting professional and being a professional are not the same.
ReplyDeleteDivision 1 college umpires are also not professionals. Anybody that has ever worked college, or anybody that knows what it takes to make it in college MUST know how that game works. I laugh at all of the D1 guys who actually think they've made it to the big time. Yes these guys must have decent judgment, but they also must be friends with the right people, and then the funniest part is the NCAA clinics you must attend, and pay for out of your own pocket. Pay to umpire I call it. Yes there's lot's of good umpires in D1 no doubt. There's also lots of guys who went to pro school, and never got a job, who now have PAID their way into the D1 level. Of course this will be denied, D1 guys will say they were chosen, and maybe they were picked. But then ask them how much they've paid in clinic fee's. Plus if you factor in the fact that the assignment secretaries call and ask the coaches, "Who did you like this year, and who don't you like?", I get to laugh again.
If we're talking about moving up, it's simple. Most officiating, you're like an actor auditioning for a part, if you look good doing what you're doing, you have a leg up. If you know the director, even better. It's all about connections. An unknown with immense talent won't get anywhere without connections. Unfair? Absolutely. But so is life where you have the child of a rich person who inherits millions, yet that person has done nothing to deserve it. That's how it works - that's capitalism, democracy, and so forth.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, and this is part of the professional/amateur measuring stick, when you're an amateur, you are an independent contractor, by and large. You can be discriminated against to no end as an official. I've seen guys not get hired because they're bald, balding, have a mustache, not have a mustache, have facial hair, are unable to grow facial hair, have too much arm hair, have not enough arm hair, wear glasses, have boobs that are too big (women, obviously), are skinny, are fat, etc. It's completely unfair, but the field of officiating never has been about fairness (think about that for a second or two).
Most of the time, it has nothing to do with ability. Absolutely nothing to do with ability.
@6:13pm- I agree 100%. I know it's unfair, and that's the way it is....
ReplyDeleteI still can laugh at the D1 guys who think they are the best, and that's why they are there.
But listen, god bless the umpires that instead of using hard work, and waiting their turn, decided to make friends with the right people to move up in the baseball world. Those guys are smarter than me. Stil, STILL, I will always have more respect for the guys who put the work in, and aren't given anything.
I think we all like a self made man story.
Of course when a life or death issue is the case, I don't want the doctor that is most like by the administration, and given a job even though his evaluations weren't the best. I'd much rather have the best qualified guy cut on me, no matter what he looked like, no matter what his race is or where he came from.
The other field where I've found picking the most liked guy doesn't work is manufacturing. In that field you need the fastest dude, even if he smells bad. You can't make money when your friends make 2 parts an hour, and the other guy makes 200.