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If my mother is so spitting mad at those bumbling buffoons the NFL calls replacement refs that she’s joined President Obama in venting electronically, you know the league has a huge problem.
Mom usually knits quietly while watching her beloved Green Bay Packers, rarely getting riled at even egregious calls. But when the refs “officiating” Monday night’s game against the Seattle Seahawks bungled a key call and handed the ‘hawks a last-second 14-12 win, she damn near exploded. “I’m sick!” she told me in one irate text at after another.
She was hardly alone. Fans, players and even politicians took to Twitter, Facebook and every other form of instant communication to debate and decry a call that underscored how lame these replacement refs are. Twitter said more than a million tweets went out about a call that prompted President Obama to say, “Enough.”
“I’ve been saying for months we’ve got to get our refs back,” Obama said upon returning to the White House from the United Nations, according to The Washington Post. In a tweet sent over his initials, he said:
The resounding outcry, which saw fans and players uniting in their condemnation, created a singularly unique moment for the sport, one that was powerful in its authenticity. But first, the set-up:
The Seahawks were down 12-7 when quarterback Russell Wilson threw a Hail Mary into the end zone for the final play of the game. Packers safety M.D. Jennings plucked the ball out of the air; although Seahawks receiver Golden Tate grabbed it as Jennings landed, the ball clearly had been intercepted. The replacement refs didn’t see it that way. They awarded the winning touchdown to Seattle.
Twitter exploded.
“So what do we call last night’s game? The Inaccurate Reception? The Fail Mary? Any ideas…?” ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter tweeted. Then, he added:
The play generated more than 1 million tweets by midday Tuesday. The flurry of tweets and retweets was amazing. Leading the list had to be blunt commentary by [Packers guard T.J. Lane](<a href=), who tweeted:
He followed that with, “Fuck it NFL.. Fine me and use the money to pay the regular refs.” Those two comments were retweeted 150,000 times, according to Twitter.
It wasn’t just Packers spouting off. New Orleans Saints Q.B. Drew Brees tweeted:
The outrage went beyond football players, too. LeBron James, Bubba Watson and Brandon McCarthy joined fans in denouncing the calls and the general state of NFL officiating.
Some did more than vent. A Facebook fan page for Packers linebacker Clay Matthews posted NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s work number and earned more than 1,500 “likes.” (Many media, including us, initially reported the posting was by Matthews; the Packers press office told us today it was not.) A livid Wisconsin State Sen. Jon Erpenbach tweeted the number.
Within 24 hours of the bungled call, #mondaynightfootball had 12,749 tweets worldwide. #replacementrefs hit 57,944 tweets, up from just 6,342 last week. The number of tweets with #MNF nearly doubled to 261,857 tweets. People were tweeting from across the globe, with the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Mexico and Brazil leading the way.
What’s so striking about the reaction to Monday night’s game is speed and (general) unanimity with which the reactions came down and the honesty with which players spoke. Players, those multi-millionaires with lives so unlike our own, agree with us, and they’re siding with us.
“Athletes used to be so distant, said Douglas Alden Warshaw, author and digital analyst. “This first-person communication has broken down walls. All of these athletes are sounding exactly like fans. They’re just saying, ‘Fuck it, I don’t care.’ Fans love that.”
Warshaw attributes this most authentic of protests — we saw the same thing during the 2012 Summer Games — as one reason Twitter went nuts. Moments like this resonate and grow, feeding off themselves. “This is an event that has a different texture,” Warshaw said. “Social networking has produced an authenticity that you cannot manufacture, and that has power.
“What if every player in the NFL had a negative tweet?” Warshaw asked. “Goodell would have to fine every player. It’d be so cool. To some extent that’s what’s going on.”
It was a rough third week on the job for the replacement refs, who, among other things, endured an entire stadium yelling “Bullshit” in response to a call at the Ravens-Patriots game Sunday. Many on Twitter are wondering: Will a gaffe this — to quote Packers Q.B. Aaron Rodgers — “awful” help end the lockout? Who knows. The NFL released a statement Tuesday standing by the replacement officials, even as it conceded that pass interference led to the bogus touchdown that gave the Seahawks a win.
The league seemed to ignore the social media firestorm, something it does at its peril.
Wired staff writer Daniela Hernandez contributed to this report.
Post updated 2:15 p.m. Eastern Wednesday, Sept. 26.
