Mortazza hangs out with his players before a game. (Getty Images)

NFL officiating crews have gotten plenty of press on Tuesday, and almost none of it has been good. But hearing that the Lingerie Football League claimed it fired several of the crews currently working in the NFL is just downright devastating.

Mitchell Mortaza, founder and chairman of the LFL, released a statement on the LFL Facebook page along with a part-creepy, part-hilarious, all-kinds-of-awesome photo.

“Because of the LFL’s perception, it is that much more critical for us to hire officiating crews that are competent, not only for the credibility of our game but to keep our athletes safer," Mortaza said in a statement. "Due to several on-field incompetent officiating, we chose to part ways with a couple of crews which apparently are now officiating in the NFL. We have a lot of respect for our officials but we felt the officiating was not in line with our expectations."

Um, so what took so long to get this info out there? Excellent question!

"We have not made public comment to date because we felt it was not our place to do so," Mortaza said. "However in light of tonight’s event, we felt it was only fair that NFL fans knew the truth as to who are officiating these games."

Or, alternately, Mortaza knew that cranking out this statement during a time when the NFL ref situation is getting crazy kinds of coverage from national, non-sports outlets would draw a lot of attention to the LFL. (He was right.)

But the NFL continues to dispute that one of its alternates, Craig Ochoa, was actually fired by the LFL.

"He said that is not true," NFL spokesman Greg Aiello told Yahoo! Sports in an email regarding Ochoa. "He was not dismissed by that league."

If the LFL's claims are true, it would, frankly, be nice for them to point out exactly which officials were fired by the league, if only so there was actual proof that X number of refs are a part of the group that's catching so much heat.

It seems unfathomable that the NFL would hire officials who weren't competent enough to make it in a sport that your spouse might only allow you to follow if you just read the articles.

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