NFL Apologizes to Hawks for Bad Officiating, But What About Us?

The NFL admitted yesterday that the referee of Sunday's Seahawks-Giants game, Larry Nemmers, should have gotten off his knees, because he was blowing the game.

Nemmers reviewed two Giants' touchdowns on instant replay. He ruled that both were, in fact, touchdowns. The NFL says he was wrong--neither touchdown should have counted. They added that they have urged Nemmers to keep his head out of his ass, to call it both ways, and to stop trying to be the star.

Coincidentally, Phil Luckett, the auteur of the most well-known blown call in Hawks history, was part of Sunday's officiating crew. Luckett famously mistook Vinny Testaverde's helmet for the football in a critical late-season 1998 game. The helmet made it into the end zone on a goal line run (though the ball didn't) but Luckett called it a touchdown anyway, costing the Seahawks a win. Stuff magazine called this one of the 20 worst calls in sports history.

Though the NFL apologized to the Seahawks, what about us Seahawks fans, who nearly had our collective Sunday ruined by Nemmers' incompetence? Perhaps it's too much for us to expect a personal call of regret. But, at the very least, the NFL should inform Nemmers' wife that, on Sunday, he was screwing us, too.

UPDATE: Now the NFL says that Holmgren, who reported the above to the media, is full of guano, and that referee Nemmers made the correct calls. Holmgren is the one in trouble now, since conversations with the league's officiating department are confidential. We aren't so sure that the NFL isn't just covering their asses and making Holmgren the scapegoat, instead of Nemmers, who may be in need of an eye exam.