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 a referee in 1987, thought it was clear that 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 couldn't believe the league let this dispute drag on for so long. The Associated Press reported late Wednesday that a tentative agreement had been reached between the NFL and the referees' union.Jim Tunney, who retired as an NFL referee in 1991 and still works as a motivational speaker, said locked-out NFL refs resented the replacement officials and suggested that the ill feelings are 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 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."Most current referees stayed quiet about the labor dispute and about the number of bad calls made by the replacement refs."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 the Fort Worth Football Officials Association.At the end of Sunday's game, Roan told a pool reporter that he incorrectly gave 49ers Coach Jim Harbaugh two extra video challenges after Harbaugh called a timeout in the fourth quarter."What I told him was, 'Well, you challenged it not knowing what the result of the play was going to be,'" Roan told the 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
