2012 NFL Referee Lockout

In 2012 the NFL underwent arguably one of the most embarrassing phase of its existence. Employed referees went on strike for better pay, as read on the prestigious NY Times article, Goodell refuses, and replacement referees are sent in to officiate every game the 32 teams play a week. Fans were immediately outraged when extra-questionable calls were made agains their team because they felt it was personal and biased. There are at least two recorded games that after further review by the media, and just people in general, that ended improperly because of a single bad call by a referee.

http://www.dallasnews.com/

The Green Bay Packers suffered a loss in their 2012 season against the Seattle Seahawks. This game will not be forgotten by any Packers fan any time soon. The Packers had the lead the entire game until the last play. Seattle's quarterback threw a hail marry pass that either won them the game or lost them the game and the referees ruled it to be the latter, or did they? The fact is, after the play ended, one referee signaled that the play had gone in Seattle's favor while another referee 2 feet away signaled in Green Bay's. They discussed it and Seattle left the field with a win. In the interviews after the game players on the Packers were livid. They directly named and blamed Roger Goodell for something like this. Star Packers player Clay Mathews went to the extent of posting Goodell's cell phone number on his (e.g. Clay's) twitter and facebook and requested for people to contact him (e.g. Goodell) with their complaints or concerns.

Motives behind Goodell's hesitation to pay the referees more aren't incredibly hard to find. Money. Goodell decided that the referees didn't have the guts to follow through, or maybe Goodell had too much confidence in the replacement referees. Either way Goodell's hand was forced after the second game had been decided by a referee's call that is openly recognized as wrong. His plan to shave a few bucks off the budget with worse ref's backfired heavily. Goodell was no longer saving money on referees, and his audience (e.g. football watchers) were fairly furious.