Officials for SB announced, and it could be an issue..

[HumanCockroach]

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap300000 ... ebook_news

Seriously? HALF the officials from XL will make a return appearance, after a season in which the officials did everything possible to create an uneven playing field??? WTF ( well 3 of 7 but far to many, far, far to many) I just went from pleasantly confident, to leary in about 5 seconds.

[kalibane]

Robert Kraft is one of Goodell's biggest allies.

[rottweiler]

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000461220/article/super-bowl-xlix-officials-named-vinovich-to-be-head-referee?campaign=Facebook_news

Seriously? HALF the officials from XL will make a return appearance, after a season in which the officials did everything possible to create an uneven playing field??? WTF ( well 3 of 7 but far to many, far, far to many) I just went from pleasantly confident, to leary in about 5 seconds.

Robert Kraft is one of Goodell's biggest allies.

^ What he said. ^

[Anthony]

Given the black eye the Pats have just put on the NFl and referees with the deflation thing I doubt the refs are going to be overly hard on us.

[Zorn76]

I'm not sure how much XL is on the minds of the league, but it's likely in there somewhere.

Right now, the overwhelming weirdness rests at the feet of the Patriots and "Deflate Gate."

The NFL has got to be Pissed that they have yet another controversy on their hands, even if they feel it's a bit contrived in terms of all the media coverage given to it.

But facts are facts, and when they found that 11/12 of the footballs used by N.E. did not meet specs, it lends itself to being much more than happenstance. The Patriot franchise also has a track record with this kinda stuff - as everybody knows - and that doesn't help matters, either.

I'm not sure how all this coupled together will affect the integrity of game in terms of how it's called. I just hope it's the play on the field we're talking about, rather than the zebras screwing either side.

[HumanCockroach]

Yeah, I don't know if I'm upset they are back officiating another SB with a team that they did a horrible job with the first time, OR if I'm upset about the idea that WIN OR LOSE, there will be a narative that either the league "owed" Seattle, OR " that they did it AGAIN!" If I had to guess it's a little bit of both, but I certainly didn't want ANY questions if/when Seattle wins about the "validity" of it....

Is it really so hard to just get a game without this kind of stuff involved?

[jshawaii22]

I don't know what exactly Vinovich (sp?) did wrong, but we won both games this year he was the Head Official and we are 5-1 lifetime with him.

As long as the name is not Leavy, i'm good.

js

[HumanCockroach]

As long as he keeps the other ignoramouses in line I'm good too, worry about excuses ( either way) and hopefully the PLAYERS decide the game ( which is all I EVER want, no blatant misses on offsides, or only calling defensive holding on Sherman while allowing BB to mug a receiver etc) as long as it is evenly called, I'm cool ( and really, this is all I wanted in each and every game this season, though I'm fairly confident that was NOT the case in several of those games). We'll see, it just seems like the NFL could have ( and maybe should have) avoided it all together.

[RiverDog]

Given the black eye the Pats have just put on the NFl and referees with the deflation thing I doubt the refs are going to be overly hard on us.

Considering this recent and growing scandal, I can see that there would be a motivation for the league to root for the Seahawks to beat the hell out of the Pats.