Is anybody else just about sick of listening to commentators bitch about the replacement referees?

If you’ve listened to any football commentary – before, during, after the NFL preseason games, or the day before, or the day after…pretty much anytime, really – you’ve heard the talking heads (or disembodied voices) complaining about how awful it’s going to be when the NFL kicks off without the regular referees.

These replacement referees are making mistakes!

Oh, and…apropos of nothing, really, did you see how the South Carolina/Vanderbilt game ended?

Wow, and the ref was right in position to make that call, but didn’t. Hey, even if the ref had made that call – that obvious pass interference call – it doesn’t guarantee that Vandy would have won. But not making the call sure guaranteed the loss.

And that’s not a replacement ref. That’s the real deal.

Yeah, I know, that’s college, not pro. Still. When has an NFL week gone by without some officiating screwup that may/may not have altered the outcome of the game? When have we ever had a week of the NFL go by without bitching about the refs?

Never, that’s when. And even if you and I – the casual fans – don’t notice anything blatant, the professional pundits will, just to have something to punditize about the next day.

If you read blogs, then you know this is true.

So shut up about the replacement refs already. Right Ed?