October 19, 2017
In the Philadelphia Eagles' win over the Carolina Panthers last Thursday night, the officiating crew led by referee Pete Morelli called 10 penalties for 126 yards, while the Panthers were only penalized one time for one yard.
According to Brandon Gowton of BGN, Morelli's crews have a history of calling far more penalties on the Eagles than their opponents.
Pete Morelli’s crew in last FOUR Eagles games
— Brandon Lee Gowton (@BrandonGowton) October 13, 2017
Philly penalties - 40 for 396 yards
Opponent penalties - 8 for 72 yards
(Yo, @NFL)
As a result, Eagles fans started a petition to ban Morelli's crew from calling Eagles games in the future. As of October 19 at 2:00 p.m., that petition has over 71,000 signatures.
In speaking with multiple front-office aad coaching-staff members, the Eagles weren't happy either with the job the officiating crew did that night.
On Thursday, NFLRA (NFL Referee Association) executive director Scott Green fired back, via Pro Football Talk.
“Claims like these demonstrate a fundamental lack of knowledge about NFL officiating,” Green said. “NFL officials are graded on every call made in every game. Missing a single one can hurt his or her ranking and may be the difference between working in the postseason or not. These recent attempts to sensationalize statistics and create click-bait headlines lack important context. Without the proper perspective, the information being pushed is completely misguided. The passion of NFL fans and teams are a big part of what makes the game so great. However, it’s no excuse for the irresponsible and baseless claims we’ve seen lately. NFL officials are committed to upholding the integrity of the game and do so every week.”
My official analysis of the NFLRA's response: Shut up.
Is Morelli's crew biased? Nah, probably not. Still, for the NFLRA to claim "sensationalized statistics" is ridiculous. The statistics are what they are. Might there have been some penalties that were declined along the way? Sure, but not in any meaningful way that would un-skew the absurd 40 penalties called vs. 8 over the last four games.
But the bigger point to be made here is that even the most casual observers could see how clearly awful Morelli's crew was Thursday night. Maybe don't vociferously defend a crew that called an absolutely dreadful game a week ago. Just shut up and be better at your job.
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