I Hate Referees

Last year it was the Super Bowl. The referees in charge of officiating that game made a handful of horrid calls, essentially handing the game to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Sure, the Seahawks didn't exactly play to win that game, but neither did Pittsburgh.

Now, the crap officiating has evidently returned...but this time in the AFC Championship. That's right, you read me right. The New England Patriots should be in Super Bowl XLI, not Peyton Manning. Dean Blandino of the NFL has admitted that the face guarding call made against New England CB Ellis Hobbs was wrong. In fact, "face guarding" was discarded several seasons ago. On the play in question, Hobbs was covering Indianapolis WR Reggie Wayne. Hobbs did not make any contact with Wayne, however he also was not "playing the ball," focusing his eyes only on Wayne. The pass to Wayne hit Hobbs in the left shoulder/back area and fell incomplete to the ground. NFL Referee Bill Carollo threw a penalty marker and gave Indianapolis a 1st Down from the 1-yard line.

ProFootballTalk.com brought this error, and subsequent confession, to my attention. This furthers my theory that all referees are asshats.

UPDATE: Well, the NFL, through it's mouthpiece Greg Aiello, is now retracting the statement of another NFL official. Supposedly, Aiello claims, there was pass interference on the call as Hobbs made contact with Wayne. I watched the replay of this a half-dozen times and there was no contact. But hey, if the NFL wants to claim it's done no wrong yet again I guess nobody can stop them. Unless, of course, somebody wants to take up the idea of www.NFLRefsSuck.com and use it to blast the league officiating office and Greg Aiello. I'd help...