Like most football fans, former NFL replay referee Dixon Holman of Arlington watched in disbelief Monday night at the controversial end to the Green Bay-Seattle game.
Holman, a retired 2nd Court of Appeals judge who stepped down as referee in 1987, thought it was clear the Packers had intercepted the pass at the end of the game -- instead of a touchdown being called for the Seahawks.He remembers a good working relationship between the NFL and the referees and can't believe the league has let this dispute drag on for so long, even as reports indicate the two sides might be inching closer to a deal."I think it's sad that the league can't get its act together," Holman said.Jim Tunney, who retired as an NFL referee in 1991 and still works as a motivational speaker, said there is resentment aimed at the replacement officials from locked-out NFL refs and suggested the backlash against them is warranted."These guys volunteered for this," said Tunney, who lives in Pebble Beach, Calif. "The Division 1 college refs didn't do it. You don't work against your brethren. I can tell you there are some hard feelings."Tunney, 83, said he sees numerous problems with the replacement refs."Of course, the Green Bay-Seattle game was an abomination but I think the biggest problem has been that there's no flow, no pace to the game," Tunney said. "I know there are these refs out there who think 'I've done high school games' and think it's not that hard. But the pace is completely different and far more complex. You just can't jump into it."While Holman and Tunney are willing to talk about the replacement refs, most current referees are staying quiet when asked to comment, whether about the labor dispute or the number of bad calls made by the replacement refs.In this tight-knight community -- where many refs want to keep moving up in their profession and may be friends with both locked-out NFL refs and their replacements -- there is a hesitancy to burn any bridges."We've got friends on both sides of the issue," said one local referee who didn't want his name used.One of the locked-out NFL refs, Greg Meyer, lives in Tarrant County. Meyer, a TCU graduate, said that he couldn't comment and that everything was being directed through the leadership of the NFL Referees Association.Two of the replacement refs, Ken Roan and Bill Theodore, are also from the area. Neither could be reached for comment.Roan is listed as football president-elect on the Richardson-based Texas Association of Sports Officials website, and Theodore is listed as a crew chief with 28 years' experience with Fort Worth Football Officials Association.At the end of Sunday's game, Roan told a pool reporter that he gave 49ers Coach Jim Harbaugh two extra video challenges after Harbaugh called timeout in the fourth quarter. Once Harbaugh asked for time, it should have been his last timeout and he shouldn't have been given those challenges."What I told him was, 'Well, you challenged it not knowing what the result of the play was going to be,'" Roan told the pool reporter. "So I granted him the challenge and we went and looked at it. That was wrong. I should not have."Bill Hanna, 817-390-7698Twitter: @fwhannaHave more to add? News tip? Tell us
