I am going to do something I thought I'd never do in this blog. Write about sports. See, I'm married to a sports editor, so it's really his responsibility to write about stats, coaches, players, games and bad calls. But today, I'm writing about a bad call. And interestingly, it's not about the bad call that is on the mind of every Packer fan and many NFL fans this morning.
Last night, the replacement referees in the Packers/Seahawks game made a bad call. They actually made two. They missed an offensive pass interference first. Then they missed the last call, the deciding call of the game. A call that on review showed an interception for Green Bay, not a touchdown for Seattle. We all saw it. Everyone knows it was a bad call. One commentator this morning said if the regular NFL refs were in there, 10 out of 10 times they'd have called that an interception. It was a bad call.
I asked my husband how the Seahawks could celebrate when they won on something so blatantly incorrect. "It's a win. They got the win. That's all they care about."
While angry with the game conclusion, here's where I got even more frustrated. Immediately after the game, they interviewed Pete Carroll, coach of the Seahawks. His comment about the call ... the referees called it a simultaneous catch which goes to the offense. "Good call."
I beg your pardon. Good call? Did you see the same play we did. It was most definitely not a good call. I said to my husband, "That man has no integrity."
How much more respect would I have had for him if he'd have said, "You know what, it was a bad call, no doubt. But this game is 60 minutes long. The game was decided on the last play. We got the win." Instead, he took the low road.
Scripture says in Prov. 10:9 "Whoever walks with integrity, walks securely." And Phil. 4:8 tells us what that integrity looks like "Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, whatever is excellent, whatever is worthy of praise, think on these things."
But the bad call by the Seattle coach wasn't the last of it. Immediately after the game, I went on Facebook to express my frustration with the call, and was taken aback by what I saw. Many statuses on the social network posted by my friends were filled with profanity. Nice people, good people, people, I thought, of integrity, using truly profane speech to express their anger. It was repulsive. And I lost some respect for them, as I did for Carroll.
We are called to be honest. We are called to be righteous. And a few folks forgot that last night.
That battle for maintaining integrity is a tough one, especially when one is angry. And it's a battle I pray for help from the Holy Spirit for every day. It's something Satan wants us to fail at because when non-Christian's see us lacking that, we do not look like our Christ.
Yes, the referees, God bless them, made a bad call last night. And I think it may even been the tipping point in negotiations between the power/money-hungry owners and the refs who've certainly proved their value in the game. It's just a shame that this bad call spurred so many others to make bad calls themselves.
