We didn’t go very far back in NFL history for this week’s Throwback Thursday feature game. The Seattle Seahawks and Green Bay Packers will meet in Lambeau Field, and that matchup is a reminder of the game played early in the 2012 season, when the regular officials were locked out in a labor dispute with the league and replacement officials, who were horrendous during the preseason of that year, wound up refereeing games to open the regular season. The use of these “amateur” refs for regular games was extremely controversial, and that controversy came to a head in this game. The contest was a nationally televised Monday Night Football game, which drew even more of a spotlight on what turned out to be a disputed ending. It was a defensive battle, with the Packers clinging to a 12-7 lead as Seattle drove down toward a possible winning touchdown. On the game’s final play, Seahawk quarterback Russell Wilson launched a “Hail Mary” throw into the end zone, and receiver Golden Tate and Packer defender M.D. Jennings both jumped up to try to catch it. The two both maintained possession as they crashed to the ground, and it appeared that Jennings had intercepted the pass. Two of the referees conferred briefly, then simultaneously gave different signals – one signaling touchdown and the other a touchback, which would have been the call that resulted from the interception. The head official went to the replay booth to settle the situation. In the meantime, television replays clearly showed Tate shoving the Green Bay defender with both hands as the ball arrived, an obvious offensive pass interference penalty that all the officials missed. As the Monday Night analyst, Jon Gruden, railed against the missed call and said he felt the ball had been intercepted, the replay ref returned and called the play a touchdown, giving the Seahawks a controversial win in a game that would instantly be dubbed the “Fail Mary” game, a takeoff on the old “Hail Mary” play. Other media pundits began calling the final play the “Inaccurate Reception”, a comical version of Franco Harris’ famous “Immaculate Reception” play of yesteryear. Being in the social media age, the internet exploded with negative comments about the outcome, and not just from Green Bay’s disgruntled fan base. President Obama called the ending “terrible” and called on the NFL to settle the lockout. Packer quarterback Aaron Rodgers took another approach, he apologized to the fans, commenting that the NFL is a multi-billion dollar industry and that the games were not being supported by competent, professional officiating by using the replacements, therefore diluting the quality of play. Incidentally, the amateur refs, in this game, called a total of 24 penalties for 245 yards, more than Seattle’s 238 total yards gained for the entire game. One positive did come out of this mess. Commissioner Roger Goodell and the owners ended the referee lockout two days after the game. The NFL’s full-time officials are often guilty of “over-officiating” and taking advantage of all the camera face time to make themselves “celebrities”, but on this night the league learned their true value in the long run.
The “Fail Mary” play ending the game and the replacement officials’ term