Overall last night, the wave of replacement refs did a fine job, especially given the grim picture the lockout out NFL refs painted for the general public. But last night’s mass debut of replacement ref crews wasn’t without it’s hiccups — or in the case of Craig Ochoa, geographical vertigo.
Last night Ochoa was officiating the Falcons and Ravens preseason opener inside the Georgia Dome — in Atlanta. The great city of Atlanta is approximately 1,825 miles from the Georgia Dome and the team that plays there were neither black helmets, purple jerseys nor do they have anyone named Matt Ryan, Ray Lewis or Jim Harbaugh in town.
Yet Ochoa could have sworn that he was calling a game involving the Arizona Cardinals. How do we know this? BEcause on repeated occasions, he referred to the Falcons as “Arizona”.
Was he confused by the amount of bird mascots?
This isn’t the first case of brain flatulence for Ochoa. During the Hall of Fame game he kicked things off by incorrectly saying the Saints won the coin toss when in reality the Cardinals had one the coin toss.
With these replacement refs it’s obvious that the preseason is needed for them to do as they players do — shake off the rust and the nerves so we can have a competitive season. It would be ignorant to believe that this season will be without it’s fair share of controversial calls that fans can finally and justly blame the refs.
But in the case of Ochoa, if he blows a call he might make it out of the stadium alive. Because the team that got the short end of the stick on the call probably won’t even be playing his that game.
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