Poor Officiating Damages the AFL Product
Adam J Locascio
Monday April 11, 2005
These men turn the, as Commissioner David Baker says, "the all-fun league" into the "all-foul league." They have turned a game that is supposed to be based on a high-octane, fast-paced attack and turned it into a stroll through a supermarket searching for discounted canned peas.
The coaches and players cannot admonish the referees, but the fans can. That’s our right. We lay out the money for the tickets and we require satisfaction.
I attended the April 2 game between the Tampa Bay Storm and the Georgia Force, a game that could give the Storm a chance to put a foothold in the Southern division or give the Force a chance to distance themselves from the rest of the division. The game, on paper, had the makings of a pivotal game.
LeMonnier, Delaney, Baynes, McKinzie, and Paganelli had other things in mind. How dare the game be bigger than them? It is sad that we know their names at all.
The stat sheet says there were 20 accepted penalties for 119 yards, but the stat sheet doesn’t tell the whole story. I sat in the stands for this game. The game felt as if it was stopping every few seconds so the refs could sort out a series of flags or a ruling on the field. As a fan, I screamed in horror so loud and so often that by the time I got home, my abdominal muscles were sore.
Since I am a masochist, I had to watch the game again to see if this was purely my emotion tied to a pivotal game or was what I was seeing actually happening. I obtained a copy of the game tape from a friend who taped the game off of television and watched it again with my thumb planted firmly on the rewind button.
It was not what I expected. It was worse. At least at the game, when a play is over, you move on to focus on the next play. Imagine sitting there rewinding and watching the same load of drivel over and over and over again. It’s sick.
LeMonnier, Delaney, Baynes, McKinzie, and Paganelli want us to buy stock in Pepto Bismol. I originally thought that the complaints that I was reading on the message boards were simply fan-fodder. Apparently this epidemic is something that isn’t going away.
This game served as an example that calls aren’t just missed. These refs simply do not know the game. They do not know the rulebook. When a call needs to be made, it is made with extreme hesitation. The officiating has gotten to be so poor; these refs are scared to make a call for fear of being wrong or overruled.
For example, in the first quarter, back judge Dino Paganelli watches OS Freddie Solomon catch a pass over his shoulder. He stumbles with the ball outstretched toward the goal line. There appears to be some contact between his body and the boards as the ball is stretched out to the pilon to break the plain of the goal. Paganelli is standing on the goal line watching the play happen. No other ref is in the area but he brings in two others to help make the call. As the play was ending, he makes no indication as to what the result of the play is. Trailing the play is line judge Dana McKinzie who can only see the play from behind. As Solomon dives, the only thing visible to McKinzie is Solomon’s feet. He cannot see the ball breaking the plain of the goal line, but for some reason he is in on the conference. Paganelli is no more than seven feet from the play but he can’t bring himself to make a definitive call.
It gets worse. Even when a definitive call is made, these refs cannot even back up their own decisions. On a screen play to WR/LB Derek Lee, he is tackled by several Storm defenders right in front of McKinzie. While the play is still happening, DS Jonathan Ordway comes in to finish off the tackle. Unlike the last play, Paganelli decides he has an opinion and throws a flag from about two miles behind the play. He says Ordway late-hit Lee and tags Ordway with a personal foul even thought the tackle happened right in front of McKinzie with his whistle in his mouth. When the play was finally over, McKinzie raised his hand to end the play. No foul was called by his account. McKinzie is overruled even though the play happened not five feet from him. He could have very easily said, "I didn’t blow the whistle. This is not a late hit. The play was still going." But he doesn’t.
McKinzie being overruled on his own play by another ref is not bad enough. These referees are spineless; they allow the team’s benches to help make the decision on the play as well. This example is the grossest of all considered and had I not watched the tape, I would have missed this completely.
Storm quarterback Shane Stafford takes a snap and hands off to FB Umar Muhamad who runs off left tackle. Muhammad is hit and bumped a little and lands on his back right in front of the Force bench. While lying on his back the ball comes loose. Linesman Allen Baynes is trailing the play and as he is approaching the play he very clearly points downward with his index finger TWICE indicating that Muhammad was down. As he approaches a fallen Muhammad, he lifts his head to see the entire Force bench pointing the other direction, indicating a turnover. Even after he has indicated emphatically that Muhammad was down, he reverses the call and points the other way indicating a fumble and a turnover that sends the Force into jubilation. This is on the game tape. Baynes very clearly is pointing downward (twice, no less), but when he realizes he has to make his call in front of the entire Force bench, he changes his mind to avoid the confrontation.
Again, Baynes gets no help from the rest of this crew. Umpire Mike Delaney is watching the play from the middle of the field, stands with his hands at his side and makes no indication that the play has ended, whether a turnover has occurred, or whether the ball is dead. He does not offer an opinion and does not move until the Force offense starts to take field. He is in the screen shot the whole time, but he shrinks out of the picture, like a third grader slumping in his seat, begging not to be called on in class.
The players saw it during the game as well. During the "Sounds of the Game" segment at half time, a Storm player approaches Dana McKinzie and screams, "Hey, those are two questionable calls. What did I do?" McKinzie replies, "Hey, the guy on the sideline said it was a good call."
Poor Stafford spent most of this game up in arms regarding his attempts to sneak over the goal line. On one occasion, he has the ball over the goal line but no touchdown is signaled. Later in the third quarter, Stafford runs to his right on a keeper trying to sneak into the end zone. His knee comes down in the paint, but the refs back the ball out of the end zone and say no touchdown. Sun Sports play-by-play announcer Rick Peckham says, "The one in the first half, he got the ball across; that wasn’t any good. Now he gets the knee across and apparently that doesn’t work either."
One would think that a goal line play would be the easiest to make because five sets of eyes are focused on a very small area. This crew of surgeons apparently got so gun-shy by the end of the game, they were afraid to make any kind of call.
In the fourth quarter, again, McKinzie is involved. OS Clif Dell runs an out pattern to the left side of the end zone where McKinzie is standing watching the whole play. Dell catches the ball and crashes into the end zone with the ball outstretched. McKinzie is standing at the goal line and Dell gets up off the turf and looks to him for the sign. McKinzie makes no call and his eyes are clearly looking across the field at his other refs. Dell starts to become animated, begging for the call. McKinzie never makes any sign of any kind. Not down at the one or a touchdown. With the cameras focused on Dell and McKinzie, Rick Peckham tells the viewers that it’s a touchdown. Apparently, another ref, away from the view of the camera, makes the call. If McKinzie is so unsure of what is happening on a play that happens right in front of him, what good is he?
"Clif Dell, a delayed celebration. The officials couldn’t be more hesitant on these touchdown calls tonight," says Peckham.
And there’s more. With 1:02 left in the first half, LeMonnier, Delaney, Baynes, McKinzie, and Paganelli called six penalties in 30 game seconds. Three were declined, two were picked up as no foul, and one was accepted.
This game moves at such a slow pace, my friend’s VCR timer cut the game off at 9:04 in the fourth quarter. LeMonnier and his team of engineers stretched the game to two hours and 55 minutes (according to game notes), well beyond the time slot allotted by Sunshine Network. The good news is I didn’t have to watch the whole game. The bad news is that this could be much worse than indicated.
LeMonnier, Delaney, Baynes, McKinzie, and Paganelli are butchering this fledging sport. How would a first-time attendee to this game think of the sport? Slow, boring, and sloppy. If I was as bad at my job as LeMonnier, Delaney, Baynes, McKinzie, and Paganelli are at theirs, I would be fired, and then most likely sued.
If you or I have a catastrophic day at work where we destroy our company’s business, we get fired. Talk about job security. LeMonnier, Delaney, Baynes, McKinzie, and Paganelli get to go on with their job, collecting paychecks, and raising the blood pressure of the season ticket holder.
Memo to LeMonnier, Delaney, Baynes, McKinzie, and Paganelli: do the AFL and its fans a favor. Quit. The five of you are rain clouds on what is supposed to be a fun weekend activity.
Adam J. Locascio is a financial advisor in the Tampa Bay area and a Board Member of the Tampa Bay Storm Surge Fan Club. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Phoenix and is a six-year season ticket holder for the Tampa Bay Storm.
