As frustration with replacment referees reached a fever — and profane — pitch last night in Baltimore, the NFL and the regular officials returned to the negotiating table.
Another day of suspect calls culminated when fed-up Ravens fans serenaded the fill-in refs — and millions of viewers tuning in on NBC — with a chorus of “bulls—” so loud it moved veteran announcer Al Michaels to note, “That’s the loudest manure chant I’ve ever heard.”
And it turned ugly when Patriots coach Bill Belichick grabbed the arm of an official following a close — but good — winning field goal by the Ravens as time expired.
“I’m not going to comment on that,” Belichick said. “You saw the game. What did we have, 30 penalties called in that game?”
But the NFL and the locked out officials’ union met yesterday, according to two people familiar with the negotiations.
It was uncertain whether progress was made in an attempt to reach a new collective bargaining agreement, or when further negotiations would take place.
Through three weeks of the regular season there has been much criticism over the way some games are being handled by the replacement officials.
Replacement officials admitted making two mistakes in Minnesota’s victory over San Francisco, while a few other games included questionable calls that could have affected the outcomes.
Referee Ken Roan said he twice granted 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh video challenges after Harbaugh called timeout in the fourth quarter. Neither challenge should have been allowed once Harbaugh asked for time.
“What I told him was, ‘Well you challenged it not knowing what the result of the play was going to be,’” Roan said. “So I granted him the challenge and we went and looked at it. That was wrong. I should not have.”
In the Lions-Titans and Bengals-Redskins games, officials marched off too much yardage on penalties.
Earlier yesterday, the NFL players’ union sent an open letter to team owners calling for an end to the lockout.