At the height of the scrutiny directed towards the replacement officials, no one made more sense than Aaron Rodgers, who publicly apologized to fans for the outcome of the Packers-Seahawks game.
It stood to reason that the regular refs appreciated his comments. And Rodgers said that was exactly the case as several of the refs "thanked" him for his comments.
"I was obviously happy to see those guys back," Rodgers said Tuesday on his weekly ESPN Milwaukee radio spot with Jason Wilde. "I told Jeff Triplette, "Hey it's great to have you back.' It's been a long process."
"Him and a couple of the other refs thanked me for my comments. I did say, 'just so you know that doesn't mean we're not going to yell at you,' though."
It ended up being Rodgers who was more likely to yell at the refs though -- the Packers wound up on the wrong side of a referee decision again, when Mike McCarthy was unable to overturn a fumble because he was out of challenges. Rodgers called the issue with challenges "frustrating."
"It was frustrating," Rodgers said. "The way that the reviews have gone now with them reviewing all scoring plays and turnovers as well, you would think that would just continue to encourage a late whistle because if it is ruled a turnover, and there wasn't a whistle for down by contact, you can go back and review that upstairs and make sure it was a turnover."
Rodgers makes a salient point. If someones whistled down by contact, the play can't automatically be overturned without a challenge. Given the league's decision to automatically review any turnover this year, it wouldn't be a stretch to imagine a world where potential turnovers were challenged as well.
At least this time the officiating mistake didn't cost Rodgers' team a win.
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