packers-seahawks-catch - Blown Green Bay Packers call unites Wisconsin's political parties

Politics

Blown Green Bay Packers call unites Wisconsin’s political parties

By 241 days ago

Mere seconds after the Packers-Seahawks game ended in a controversial play, which found the refs giving a reception to Golden Tate, instead of an interception to the ball’s rightful recipient M.D. Jennings, the blogosphere went haywire. It was the blown call heard ’round the world. The mayhem on the field was matched only by the mayhem on, for instance, Twitter, in which the Packers offensive lineman tweeted:

While the replacement referees, taken from low-division NCAA football leagues to cover for the NFL’s usual referees (who have haven’t been able to come to a deal with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell), certainly handed the game to the Seattle Seahawks, any honest Packers fan should deal with the truth. The Packers, with all their athletic and coaching talent, should never have been beating the Seahawks by just 12-5. Sure, the Seahawks played well defensively, something is seriously wrong with the Packers. They should never have been in a position that would allow the refs to hand the game to Seattle.

Full disclosure: I am a Green Bay Packers fan. Born and bred, through good and bad, to the end of time. I have been critical of our team during the pre-season and these three early regular season games. Our Coach Mike McCarthy seems to have not accounted for the fact—the fact—that opposing teams have figured out our high-flying, high-octane downfield offense. We are routinely getting shut down and forced to throw short passes. I can’t quite figure out if our wide receivers can’t get open, or if our offensive line collapses so quickly that 2011-2012 MVP Aaron Rodger simply doesn’t have the time to see them. It’s probably a lot of things. Whatever it may be, the Packers offense really isn’t clicking and it has me worried.

And, to be sure, it has a lot of Wisconsin’s Packers fans worried. In a league in which every game counts for playoff contention, the Packers 1-2 record does not bode well, though they can pick themselves up in the coming weeks against sub-par teams. So confused and incensed are Packers fans that even the Wisconsin state politicians are weighing and calling for Roger Goodel to get the real refs back on the field.

The blown call and animosity toward Goodell has done something that no one thought possible: unite the political parties of Wisconsin. Even lightning rod, union-busting GOP Governor Scott Walker weighed in, supporting the NFL referees, who are part of a union.

Below is a sampling of the reactions from Wisconsin state politicians.

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