Robert Griffin III is knocked out of bounds shy of the goal line during the second half of the game against Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

By now, everyone knows that after the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad ending to last night’s game between the Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks, the officiating situation in the National Football League is truly broken.

With last night’s game stolen from the Packers after the replacement referees ruled an close-but-still-obvious end zone interception by Packers safety M.D. Jennings as a touchdown for Seahawks receiver Golden Tate, it took about a second for the Internet to explode in a fit of rage that still hasn’t subsided 14 hours later. ESPN all but disowned the NFL, and Deadspin’s Drew Magary is calling for NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s dismissal.

And while many Packers voiced their dejection and ire over Twitter following last night’s abomination, other players across the league were equally disgusted. Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III was among those to express his shock in the minutes following the call some are calling the Seattle Screwjob:


But as horrible as the scab referees have been, the lockout of the seasoned pros—i.e. not guys whose most extensive officiating experience has been at the junior-college and Lingerie Football League levels—will persist until the Goodell hammers out a deal with the NFL Referees Association. Even Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker wants to see the lockout end. The geographical argument is obvious, but when you’ve lost the support of America’s most famous union buster, it might be time to reconsider your position.

Still, the Packers are far from the only team to have suffered from the shoddy efforts of scab labor. The Redskins, too, have been on the losing end of some real stinkers. On Sunday, down by seven against the Cincinnati Bengals with just 29 seconds left in the fourth quarter, the Redskins were marching toward a tying score until Griffin was sacked for a 15-yard loss. He spiked the ball on the next down to stop the clock for one last play with seven seconds to go. Here, via Yahoo! Sports, is what happened next:

On the ensuing play, tight end Fred Davis burst out of his stance early for a false start penalty, pushing the Redskins back another 5 yards. While many Bengals exited the bench area, assuming a 10-second runoff would drain the clock, because it was a dead ball foul, there was no runoff and the Redskins would simply be moved back another 5 yards to the Bengals’ 39-yard line.

Instead, head linesman Toney Brasuell enforced the stern memo the league sent to all NFL teams about berating the replacement officials, flagging the Redskins bench for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. As was the case later on Sunday when Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh was penalized after attempting to a call a timeout, harsh words from the sidelines should result in a 15-yard penalty, yet the officials in the Redskins-Bengals game inexplicably tacked on another 5 yards, making that a 20-yard penalty and moving the ball back to the Redskins’ 41-yard line.

Redskins offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan didn’t take too kindly to this bad arithmetic. After time expired, he chased down one of the officials and reportedly said, “You have no fucking balls, you’re a fucking pussy.”

Just for the hell of it, in light of today’s NFL outrage, we figured we’d drop the Redskins a line about the officiating situation, which has gone from being a blooper reel to throwing regular-season games. After all, Goodell might not appear to give a whit about what cranky fans think across the league, but he does answer to the owners.

We asked the Redskins if the team would like to see an end to the lockout, or if they stand by the commissioner’s office? We also asked if Dan Snyder has played any role in the NFL’s side of the labor dispute.

“No comment,” is all we got from Redskins spokesman Tony Wyllie.

Not that we’re surprised by the answer. We just wanted to know for sure. So for real takes from the Redskins on the NFL’s lockout against its on-field officials, better to ask Kyle Shanahan. We know what he thinks.

Filed Under: dan snyder, kyle shanahan, labor dispute, lockout, nfl, referees, roger goodell, seattle screwjob, tony wyllie, washington redskins,