NFL should Investigate the Jets-Jax game
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by user MetsJetsDevils
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The Jets were completely outmanned during Sunday's horrific shutout loss to the Jaguars. Absolutely nothing was going to help the hapless Jets win that game. Nonetheless, the level of officiating was so poor that the NFL should investigae head referee Tony Corrente. It is clear to me that Corrente should not be allowed to referee any more games this season. God forbid he be allowed to make the calls he made yesterday in a close game.
Specifically Corrente made two unbelievably bad roughing the passer calls. The first was called on Jonathan Vilma. Vilma came in on a blitz untouched and dove at the QBs midsection. Mind you, Vilma is inches shorter and pounds lighter than Byron Leftwich. While in Vilma's grasp Leftwich launched the ball out of bounds as he went to the ground and ilma landed on top of him. Corrente said Vilma was flagged for "driving the quarterback into the ground and landing his body weight into his chest." That sounds an awful lot like the description of tackling a player. The call was enough to make the announcer state that it was one of the worst calls he has even seen and that it was enough to immediately and based on that call alone take the entire officiating crew out of contention for playoff game duty.
However, Corrente outdid himself later in the game. With the Jags backed up near their own goalline and facing 3rd down Eric Barton came in on a blitz again untouched. Barton tackled Leftwich for what may have been a safety. Barton's head was up when he tackled Leftwich with replays showing that Leftwich actually lowered his head as he was tackled. It was a text book tackle. Inexplicably Corrente called Barton for roughing the passer again, negating the possible safety and giving the Jags a free first down. Corrente explained that he flagged Barton for "dipping his head and whipping through with the hit to make contact with the helmet." Only one problem with that description, Barton never made contact with Leftwich's helmet.
If I were in a rage I would suspect that the game was fixed. However, the Jags clearly didn't need any help to beat the Hapless Jets. Thus, I am left with the opinion that Corrente is merely a poor referee. As I said at the beginning, those calls would have been catastrophic in a close game with playoff implications. the NFL cannot take that risk and should act immediately to remove that referee from the rotation.
