I know it’s an issue which has been beaten to death at the national level, but the National Football League needs its officials back.
Nothing against Wayne Elliott and his crew who handled the Rams-Redskins game at the Edward Jones Dome Sunday, but they were overmatched.
These guys would have been better off at the Great Midwest Football League championship game in Chenoa, Ill., the night before.
Congrats need to go out to the Cyclones, who completed their first season in Washington with a league runner-up. The Detroit Ravens knocked them off Saturday, 6-3.
Right now, the difference between the GMFL and NFL seems to be that one group acts more professionally while the other actually is professional. I heard a lot of jawing back and forth between our Missouri Cyclones and other teams this year, but there wasn’t much physical happening beyond the plays.
At the Rams game, John Cena was featured during in-game spots on the video boards and it seemed that half the players were auditioning to join him in the pro wrestling world. We know James Laurinaitis has the pedigree.
On Sunday, the officials lost control of the game very early in the contest. There was a lot of talking, a lot of shoving and even some swings which went unpunished.
Elliott couldn’t be held responsible for everything. One of those instances was when he was reviewing a challenge (which, according to Fox Sports officials expert Mike Pereira, shouldn’t have even been allowed) and one of the Redskins’ linemen got into Sam Bradford’s face, bringing about another scrum of pushing, shoving and talking.
The game ended up having quite an edge to it. It ended up in a positive way for the Rams after Joshua Morgan threw the ball at Rams cornerback Cortland Finnegan near the end of the game. That took the Redskins out of range of a potential tying field goal. Those two actually had been going at each other for most of the game.
It’s good to see the Rams playing competitive football again. And it was nice to hear the dome get really loud again supporting the Rams.
It’s been awhile. I think the fans are going to enjoy the Jeff Fisher era, but I don’t think most will wear their “Fisher Stache” giveaways to the game again.
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Next week is the 57th Annual Hermann Tournament and for the first time in a long time, I don’t think there’s a true favorite.
Monday’s pool consists of Washington, Pacific, New Haven and Montgomery County.
Of those three, Pacific is the defending runner-up while Washington beat New Haven for third.
It’s likely those three teams will be playing on Thursday, but the order is up in the air. Washington’s health will be a factor as will the consistency of play of Pacific and New Haven. All three teams have strong players, but which of the three will be on their game during pool play?
New Haven can hang with a lot of teams, as they showed very early against Borgia Monday, but there are some weak rotations.
Tuesday’s pool overall might be a little stronger and there’s going to be a decent team at home on Thursday.
Borgia, Hermann, Owensville and Union are in the Tuesday pool and I think it’s going to come down to the last two matches to determine placement.
Hermann is going to be extremely difficult to beat, especially at home. Linda Lampkin has a veteran staff and returning key players. As of right now, the Lady Bearcats have got to be considered the favorite.
Owensville is an up-and-coming team which has the goal to beat Borgia in the district tournament. Union also is a rising team which has played solid ball lately.
Borgia, the defending champion, has a difficult road. While the team has a new coach in Brad Bruns, and a new faster offense, the team has yet to get the signature win it needs to prove it’s a true challenger this year. Monday’s win against New Haven was good and the team has a big home match against Villa Duchesne Friday.
But the schedule works against Borgia. Thanks to the past administration, Borgia also has AAA matches Monday at home against Lutheran St. Charles (right now, unbeaten in the AAA) and Wednesday at Trinity. That means the Lady Knights could play seven matches in four days and that’s enough to wear down any team.
