Credit: Jake Roth-US PRESSWIRE

There is a storm brewing.  And, no I’m not talking about the wretched performance of the Dallas Cowboys in their first preseason game – it was bad.  But, everyone from actual experts to the casual fan has pretty much already weighed in on that front.  No where to go but up from that performance.  Let’s just hope they get some of the starters back from injury and can put it together before September 5th.

No, what I’m talking about is the on going labor dispute between the NFL and the NFL Referees.  Like most fans, I’ve been focused on football and training camps.  I was aware that there was an issue with the referees and the NFL similar to last season’s lockout that threatened the entire season.  But, frankly I haven’t given it a lot of thought – more concerned about who would play center for the Cowboys or wind up earning the #3 receiver position.  But, after watching the first week of preseason with the “replacement officials”, the issue has my full attention.

It’s funny how sometimes you don’t know what you’re missing until its gone.  I’d say that is the case with NFL referees.  We largely take them for granted – until they blow a call that can’t be overturned by instant replay!  Watching most of the games this last week, it became painfully obvious how good of a job the professional officials actually do.  It’s preseason for the officials too and these guys are not used to the speed of the NFL, but boy oh boy there were some glaring issues!  Here are just a few I noticed:

>>  Holding is apparently much harder to call when your head is on a swivel just trying not to get trampled (think running with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain); in one game, I actually witnessed an offensive lineman put an oncoming linebacker in a bear hug and fall backwards taking him to the ground.  Obvious holding, right?  Nope.  No flags.  Its long been said that a referee could virtually call holding on any play in the NFL, but you’ve got to see and call the obvious ones done so flagrantly and right out in the open.

>>  In another game, a punt was clearly downed inside the 5-yard line but the ball was placed at the 20 as if it had been a touchback.

>>  In the Giants – Jaguars game, the New York punt returner who was carrying the ball was called for holding.  Holding what?  The ball?  Isn’t that what he’s supposed to do?

>>  Atlanta was repeatedly called “Arizona” by one official in the Atlanta – Baltimore game.

>>  In the Cowboy’s game, Tony Romo had to point out at one point that the ball had been placed on the wrong hash mark.

>>  I saw multiple occasions where a receiver was mauled by the defender with no flag and conversely I saw flags thrown for what seemed to be the defender doing nothing more than making eye contact with the receiver.

Lots of mistakes – lots of hesitation and indecision, very little consistency.  Most of the locked out NFL referees have been doing this for 10-15 years or longer.  There is a definite skill to it and it’s not like plugging another body in does the trick.

I’m not taking the referees side in the dispute by any means.  I just have a much better understanding now of what they really do, how difficult it is, and how much it can affect the quality and outcome of a game.  The dispute itself as I understand it is essentially about the officials wanting to keep their pension plans while the NFL wants to move to a defined contribution plan (think 401k like most of us have).  Additionally, the NFL wants to start adding full-time referees as most NFL officials today have “day jobs”.  That sounds good on paper, but the referees are reluctant to give up the security of their regular jobs and they already spend countless hours in preparation, travel, and film study.  And, of course, the NFL thinks the previous CBA agreement with the officials was too rich.  They want to pay them less and are trying to eke out pennies while the game we all love is going up in flames before their eyes.

Credit: Kelley L Cox-US PRESSWIRE

There is talk now of the replacement officials being used in the regular season.  Think about that for a moment.  Football is a game of inches – sometimes literally on a 4th and one!  The season opener between the Giants and the Cowboys is most likely at this point to be affected as each side waits for the other to blink.  How maddening would it be if that critical game ends up being decided by a bad spot, a phantom pass interference call, or a missed hold?  No big deal?  Just one game?  Not hardly!  It’s a division game against a rival that already seems to get every break in the book.  No one expects the dispute to impact the entire season.  So, how do you level the playing field in a season where a division game was played with replacement officials and the later game wasn’t?  Dallas will already have their hands full against the Giants.  If the Cowboys lose that game on 9/5 due to an obvious blown call by the replacement officials, it could literally be the reason they sit home come January.

Of course, if the blown call favors the Cowboys, then never mind.  I will love the idea of replacement officials - but it never seems to work in our favor. 

Come on, NFL!  The integrity of the game and the season is at stake.  Get over it already and resolve this.  There is plenty of money for all of you.  Being a Cowboys fan is hard enough these days without having to worry about playing the part time ”12th man” in the striped shirt too.  Go Cowboys!

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Credit: Matthew Emmons-US PRESSWIRE

Okay fans, the season has officially begun.  As of this morning, we are two full days into the 2012 Training Camp for the Dallas Cowboys taking place in Oxnard,CA.  Here are just a few observations so far on the Cowboys:

1.  It’s old news now, but pretty disappointing to see Felix Jones, Brodney Pool, and Andre Holmes fail their conditioning tests.  They aren’t allowed to practice until they pass.  These are all 3 players that have potentially big roles in the Cowboys plans this season – Felix in his contract year as the “change of pace” backup to DeMarco Murray, Pool in the mix as a potential starter at safety, and Andre Holmes who many have mentioned as a strong candidate to replace Laurent Robinson as the #3 receiver.  It isn’t like they didn’t know this was coming or what the test would be – 2 sets of ten 60-yard sprints at 8 seconds or less per sprint.  That should be a piece of cake for an NFL athlete at a skill position like theirs.  What does it say about their off season, their preparation for camp, or their commitment?  Nothing good.  They practiced the test on Tuesday and will officially re-take it today.  Let’s hope they pass it this time as they need the practice time and the team needs them.

2.  The NFL is proving once again there is a conspiracy against our Cowboys.  NFL rules state that a team cannot open their training camp until 15 days before their first preseason game.  Because the Cowboys have the last preseason game of week 1 (on 8/13), they were not allowed to open camp until today.  However, the Giants and the Cowboys both open the season against one another on 9/5.  But, the Giants were allowed to open their camp last Friday giving them 3 extra days of quality time before the season opener versus the Cowboys.  With the new CBA rules limiting anything and everythng teams can do now in training camp, those 3 days are huge.  The Eagles and Redskins get a full 8 days advantage on the Cowboys.  But, the league turned down the Cowboys request for an exception.  Only thing missing is a grassy knoll and Oliver Stone…

3.  Bill Nagy apparently suffered a high ankle sprain on the first day of camp and may miss the rest of preseason.  That is a big blow to a very thin center position.  Nagy was expected to battle Costa and Kowalski (PUP) but the Cowboys are now down to Costa, who was questionable last year and youthful David Arkin and Harland Gunn.  The interior line was clearly an area of concern coming into the season and with Kowalski and Bernadeau already gimpy, adding Nagy to the list is a real problem.  It goes without saying that we need to keep Romo upright this season so he can run the offense.  So far, the plans the Cowboys thought they had have been blown up.

This is just an aside, but are the new CBA rules around training camp and practices – intended to protect players - actually working against them?  While having fewer practices in full pads with full contact reduces the physical burden on players over a long, difficult season, is it ultimately making them more vulnerable to injury?  Teams are allowed only 14 padded practices during the entire regular season, no more than 2 practices per week in full pads, and no longer than 3 hours per practice.  I was always taught you “play like you practice” and that you had a higher chance of being hurt in a game if you were not going full speed.  Historically in the NFL, the most successful teams have been those who were toughest.  Anyone remember “Camp Cupcake” under Wade Phillips?  The players may love the easier practices but I can’t ever recall seeing so many high ankle sprains, muscle pulls, and knee injuries to key players throughout the league as we have the last 2 years.  If you don’t often go full speed simulating “live action”, are you really fully prepared for the speed and intensity of a game?  Think of it this way – if you practice surviving a car crash every day at 10 mph, does it really help you when the car is going 75 mph?  The new rules might help avoid concussions – and that’s a good thing – but I think the rest of the body can potentially get soft to violent contact.  When we have a few more years of data, it would be interesting to compare injury rates in college football (where they don’t have these rules) to the NFL.

4.  Late in Monday’s first practice, Mo Claiborne came up limping with soreness in his groin.  Hopefully, it is nothing more than that and he doesn’t develop the perennial groin pull that plagued his predecessor.  He practiced in full on Tuesday, so looks like he’s fine.  Interesting to see that Claiborne was immediately inserted in the starting defense.  There had been some speculation that he would start off behind Scandrick and would have to earn his spot.  Not so, apparently.

5.  Time to panic yet on the punter?  The Cowboys decided re-signing Mat McBriar was too expensive and the “future” (aka cheaper option), Chris Jones started camp with a bad case of the shanks.  That is one decision I think the Cowboys will regret – particularly on November 11th in Philadelphia where they get to see McBriar in a green Eagles uniform for the first time.  Let me be the first to say it – Jones is no McBriar and we may get to find out just how many losses can be traced back to poor field position as a result of poor punting.  Let’s hope Jones can get it fixed.

6.  Mo Claiborne has gotten most of the attention since the draft but so far Brandon Carr has been the more consistent player and is having an outstanding camp.  Not totally surprising as he is the veteran and it likely takes a little time for Claiborne to catch on to the nuances of certain zone coverages.  Claiborne has been beaten on a lot of routes so far but appears to be learning and improving every day.  No doubt he is a huge talent and will eventually be just fine, but he will have a learning curve too.

7.  Jay Ratliff’s foot injury has flared up again and as of this writing, he is “out indefinitely”.  Ratliff had a painful plantar fascitis injury last year and it was hoped that he was fully recovered.  Not so and this could linger all season.  NOT good news.

8.  Cole Beasley is having an outstanding camp and if he can learn his reads, run the correct routes, and develop a rhythm with Romo, he could be the guy to replace Laurent Robinson.

Credit: Douglas Jones-US PRESSWIRE

9.  Dan Bailey has yet to miss a field goal in live drills – that’s a very good sign after living through the painfully inconsistent David Buehler.

Lots more to come as today will be the first day in pads.  Let’s hope that the Cowboys can avoid losing any more players to injury.  This team is talented but some of the backup talent is still pretty raw.  Go Cowboys!

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