The NFL is a joke.
The NFL lacks integrity.
The replacement officials should go back to their real jobs at Foot Locker.
For several hours on Tuesday morning that's all you heard as the outrage from Monday night's Packers-Seahawks game spewed out and everyone weighed in on what may have been the worst call on a game-deciding play in NFL history.
Then at 11:40 on Tuesday morning, NBC Universal sent out an email that revealed why NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and the 32 NFL owners still feel they have leverage in their negotiations with the regular NFL officials.
The email said that the Patriots-Ravens Sunday Night Football game on NBC was seen by an average of 21.3 million people and registered a national rating of 12.9 and a 21 share.
It made Sunday Night Football the No. 1 prime-time program of the week for the third straight week, and led NBC to another Sunday night win while going head-to-head against the Emmy Awards on ABC.
Boycott the games until the real refs return? That's what people like ESPN's Ron Jaworski have suggested.
Sorry, folks, it's just not going to happen.
If anything, all of the controversy surrounding these blown calls that have players, coaches and analysts enraged give the league more publicity.
If our modern-day water cooler — Twitter and Facebook — are any indication, everybody's talking about how bad these officials are and how the games are becoming tainted.
But that's what the NFL wants — everybody talking.
Now there's an extra element of suspense added to every game. The bungling officials give fans a third team on the field to focus on, and when they screw up — as they seem to do every game — it adds a professional wrestling element to the action.
Teams no longer just have to beat the other team; they have to win decisively enough to take the officials out of the picture. In other words, the Packers should have never let it come down to one last play in Seattle, although some would argue that it was actually three bad calls that gave the Seahawks the victory.
Even while viewers show no signs of leaving, the image-oriented NFL can't like what they're hearing from their TV partners.
"These games are a joke," Fox lead analyst Troy Aikman tweeted.
"I don't have a good taste in my mouth; I don't like this one bit," Monday Night Football analyst Jon Gruden said.
"For 12 years, we've been told as a football community that this is your game," Trent Dilfer said later on ESPN. "Everybody out there should be really angry because your intelligence has been insulted."
Even NBC's Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth chimed in on Sunday night, before the Seattle stew occurred, calling the situation "ridiculous."
The Baltimore crowd, perhaps stealing some of Philly's rep, delivered a loud and clear message heard across the nation. The FCC said it wouldn't fine NBC, but the chants were so clear that Michaels interjected: "That's the loudest manure chant I've ever heard."
