Steve Young on replacement officials: NFL doesn’t care, player safety doesn’t matter

Most of you are probably sick of hearing about the replacement official situation in the NFL by now, but it is only getting worse. The officiating crew lost control of Monday night’s game between the Broncos and Falcons on multiple occasions. Knowshon Moreno fumbled in the first quarter and it was ruled that the Falcons recovered, despite the fact that a Broncos player came out of the pile with the football. A shoving match then broke out between the two teams and the game was delayed for more than five minutes while the referees figured out how to handle it.

Simply put, the game was a mess. There were a number of horrendous pass interference calls and utter confusion almost every time a flag was thrown. But if you think the NFL is feeling pressure to bring back its regular officials because of disasters like the one we saw in Atlanta, Steve Young says you had better think again.

“Everything about the NFL now is inelastic for demand,” Young said on the ESPN broadcast after the game. “There’s nothing they can do right now to hurt the demand for the game. The bottom line is they don’t care. Player safety doesn’t matter in this case. Bring in the Division III officials – it doesn’t matter. In the end you’re still going to watch the game, we’re going to all complain and moan and gripe but it doesn’t matter. Go ahead and gripe all they want. I’m going to rest. Let them eat cake.”

I couldn’t agree more. People can sit at home and scream at their TV sets all they want, but the fact that they’re screaming means they’re still tuning in. Anxiety may increase while the regular officials are locked out, but ratings remain the same. No matter how many extra timeouts they hand out or blocks in the back they miss, revenue is going to remain stable. That’s what makes this situation such a stalemate.

H/T The Big Lead