You cannot go down to your local junkyard to find tires for
your brand new Ferrari. Ferrari embodies performance and luxury as a result of
the world’s most talented designers, engineers and marketing professionals
coming together over many years to create the perfect product and the ultimate
level of brand equity. If you
furnish this product with worn out, low grade tires they simply will not be able
to handle the speed of this automobile, and the years of dedication by the best
engineers and designers would have been all for nothing. Slowly, the brand
equity built over many years and the reputation as being the world’s greatest
performance vehicle will be tarnished. Sure, people will still drive the cars
just as people still drive Hyundai’s, but the special and distinct appeal that
the car has in people’s minds and hearts will disappear, and the image of the
brand will be reduced to equal that of their competitors. As foolish as this
scenario sounds of putting discarded tires on a world class luxury product, that
is exactly what the NFL has done this season by implementing replacement refs
from Division 3, high school and the lingerie league. The contributions of the
world’s greatest players, coaches and executives are being overshadowed by refs
that simply cannot handle the speed of the game, and the talent and preparation of
those individuals are taking a backseat to misinformed interpretations.
I agree with the NFL’s stance of not being forced to the
negotiating table, but it is time to acknowledge how great the regular refs are
as much as we like to get on their case for the occasional bad call. I am often
amazed (in previous seasons) by watching the slow motion replay and seeing how
the refs got the call right despite it looking nothing even close to right in real
time to my untrained eye. The refs are not a commodity that can be easily
replaced. Just like the players and coaches, these men are the absolute elite
in their profession and need to be recognized as such. The concept that the NFL
is so good that any old ref will do is like saying the Chargers are so talented
that even Norv Turner can take them to a Superbowl. I just hope the replacement
ref experiment does not last as long as Norv’s tenure.
