Roger Goodell Flooded With 70,000 Complaints, Obama Wants Regular Refs
Roger Goodell, NFL commissioner, received an estimated 70,000 complaints to his office along with a public complaint from President Barack Obama after the NFL replacement referees made a questionable call that cost the Green Bay Packers a game on Monday night.
While the lockout of 120 employees from the NFL Referees Association has been taking place since June, fans were outraged on Monday night when the Seattle Seahawks beat the Green Bay Packers 14-12. The replacement referees seemed to botch a call on a final pass from Seahawks' quarterback Russell Wilson while the Packers were in the lead.
As Wilson tossed the ball into the end zone, Seahawks wide receiver Golden Tate pushed a defender to the ground. Although the Packer's M.D. Jennings seemed to intercept the ball, despite Tate's attempts and Wilson's pass, the replacement referees still awarded a touchdown to the Seahawks, which resulted in them winning the game.
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Wisconsin Sen. Jon Erpenbach was one of the upset Packers fans, and he decided to tweet the telephone number of Goodell on Monday night.
"You can leave a message for NFL commish Roger Goodell at (phone number) #NFL," he wrote in a message that was re-tweeted by over 1,000 people at press time.
It seemed fans took Erpenbach's advice, after SportsCenter reported that over 70,000 people flooded the NFL offices with voicemails after the game. President Obama even seemed to join in on the calling of regular referees to be reinstated in a telephone interview with Bill Willis of WTAM-AM in Cleveland last week.
Although the Packers had yet to lose before Obama made his statements, the President admitted that it was time for the regular referees to resolve their labor dispute after weeks of NFL fans' complaints.
"One thing I got to say, though, is it just me or do we have to get our regular refs back," Obama asked Willis last week. "I can't get involved with it, but I'm just expressing my point of view as a sports fan."
