Ever get done watching an NFL game, and the ref blew a call so bad you just screamed at your television “THEY NEED TO FIRE THIS GUY, TOMORROW”. We’ve all done it. Well, guess what, it happened. Finally. After an absolutely brutal missed false start in the Los Angeles Chargers and Cleveland Browns game, the NFL stepped in and told Referee Hugo Cruz to hit the bricks.
Report: The NFL has fired down judge Hugo Cruz after missing a blatant false start call in the Browns and Chargers game:https://t.co/cTnuetPiKQ pic.twitter.com/ScJbfNqF1h
— 247Sports (@247Sports) October 25, 2018
Did you watch that video? The Cleveland Browns and Dawg Pound watched that video. Probably more times than they’d like to admit. Probably as many times as Lions fans have watched the Rodgers to Rodgers 61-yard hail mary from 2015. You remember that one. The one that wasn’t supposed to happen. The one that only occurred at the end of the game because the zebras threw a flag on a face mask penalty that never actually occurred. Sure, the Lions went on to be 7-9 that year and took third in the division, but that call still directly cost them that game.
Allegedly this isn’t the first time Cruz has botched a call or no-call. But if you’re an NFL junkie like I am, you see this stuff all the time. How many variables go into an NFL game? Home field advantage, coaching decisions, injuries, schemes, even weather…and then to tack on complete and utter train wreck officiating, we might as well Madden-simulate some of these games.
61 yards. One Throw.
This is how one of the craziest finishes in NFL history went down. #GBvsDET https://t.co/01AamoDd8J
— NFL (@NFL) December 4, 2015
Fun fact for the day: Carl Cheffers and crew that completely threw the Lions under the bus in that game, came BACK to officiate the Lions-Packers first game in 2016. When asked about the call, Cheffers most eloquently and definitively replied: “Dude, it’s 2016.” Thanks, Carl, thanks for clearing that one up for us.
Regarding Cruz, and the NFL finally stepping up and making some moves with officials, it’s about time. These guys are humans, we get it, they make mistakes. But these mistakes affect owners, players, other refs, stadiums full of fans, and degenerate fantasy addicts, like me. What’s the point of having “New York” look at these calls live, or a board of NFL execs who monitor these officials, if they’re not going to actually do anything about it.
What they should do, is just make every ref answer to the GROAT. Ed Hochuli is an impressively successful attorney, so you know he can be convincing. If none of that lawyering stuff works, he can just crush your head with his 21-inch biceps. Either way, what Ed says, goes.
If NFL wants to eliminate all this controversy, just let Ed Hochuli ref every game. Nobody argues w/a guy w/21" arms. pic.twitter.com/FhQONY3809
— Eric Cressey (@EricCressey) January 11, 2015
