The ludicrous, shameful end of the Packers-Seahawks game Monday night delivered an unmistakable message to the NFL owners: When you hire scab labor, you get a scab product.
After a weekend of horrendous calls the “replacement” refs made a mockery of the marquee game.
Just on the last drive alone, there was a ridiculous roughing the passer call when Russell Wilson was hit with a legitimate light tackle right after he released a pass the Packers intercepted.
Then there was the inexplicable pass interference call against the Packers, which clearly was offensive pass interference, if anything.
And, of course, there was the now-infamous touchdown call in the end zone after Packer safety M. D. Jennings actually had intercepted the pass.
The scab referees must have had one eye closed to make the original call on the field, and two eyes closed to make the call in the replay booth.
As a result, the Packers got ripped off of a victory they had earned, and this could affect the playoffs down the road.
The NFL owners took a huge gamble with the scab refs, and they obviously lost that gamble in the most embarrassing way.
There’s a lesson here, and not just for the NFL: Workers are not fungible. Anyone who has mastered his or her job cannot be replaced, at a moment’s notice, with someone off the street or with someone in the same field with much less experience. It doesn’t matter whether you’re talking about NFL refs or air traffic controllers or autoworkers or schoolteachers. You pay a price, and the public pays a price, when you hire scab labor.
If you liked this story by Matthew Rothschild, the editor of The Progressive magazine, check out his story “Ann Romney, Paul Ryan Spin Themselves Dizzy in Defending Romney."