Key Monday Night Football Official Failed Academy (1 Viewer)

[Waymer]

Consider this story as being of little surprise to yours truly. According to USA Today, the referee initially responsible for awarding Golden Tate Monday's game-winning touchdown wasn't even sufficiently qualified to referee at the Division I level.

Ken Richins, the director of the Stars and Stripes Academy for Football Officials, stated that Easley attended his academy in June. Richins noted that "after three days at our aacademy, Lance was determined by our staff not to be ready for Division 1 officiating." Of course that begs the question, if Easley wasn't ready for Division 1 football, how was he qualified to officiate NFL games?

According to the USA Today report, Easley primarily officiated southern California high school football games and some junior college games. He had no experience officiating at a level higher than the Division 3 college level.

Of course while it's easy to blame Easley, the fact of the matter is it really isn't his fault. He did the best he could in the situation he was presented, and I don't blame him for taking the opportunity of a lifetime . Yes, he made a bad decision. But the real blame lies with the owners and Roger Goodell. Rather than ensure the best of the best were officiating the games (or even the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th best), they had to resort to literally hiring officials off of high school fields.

Easley will receive plenty of scrutiny from here on out, but count me amongst those who hope he is able to move past the situation and continue his dream and goals of working up the ranks of officials (provided he continues to improve of course). But again, rather than blaming Easley, the blame needs to be pointed directly at the NFL. That's a call anyone should be able to get right.

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