When you come right down to it, the job of an NFL official is pretty simple: Enforce the rules that protect the players and the integrity of the result, while simultaneously keeping the emotions of players under control. Difficult task? Sometimes. Impossible? Not at all.
Sunday evening, after the Washington Redskins had lost 31-28 to the St. Louis Rams, just about every Redskins player who found himself in front of a microphone thought the officials had failed to do their job.
After the jump, a sampling of quotes via the Tweets of the ever-awesome Redskins media corps.
Darrel Young: "This is THE dirtiest game I’ve ever played in." #Redskins
— Rich Campbell (@Rich_Campbell) September 17, 2012
RG3 on the extracurricular activity: "It got out of hand."
— Rich Campbell (@Rich_Campbell) September 17, 2012
Santana Moss on the chippy play: "If you ain't a punk, you ain't going to lay down. When those guys throw hands, what are you going to do?"
— Grant Paulsen (@granthpaulsen) September 17, 2012
Fred Davis: "They were doing a lot of dirty stuff after the play. In those situations, sometimes your emotions get the best of you."
— Grant Paulsen (@granthpaulsen) September 17, 2012
DeAngelo Hall: "I think the game was out of hand from early on. It was tough to try to keep your composure. It was real chippy." #Redskins
— Grant Paulsen (@granthpaulsen) September 17, 2012
Mike Shanahan: "Everybody saw the game. The game was a little bit out of control. You don't like to see it." #Redskins
— Grant Paulsen (@granthpaulsen) September 17, 2012
Trent Williams on the officials on CSN's #Redskins Post Game Live "They looked overwhelmed at times"
— Sky Kerstein (@SkyKerstein) September 16, 2012
And so on and so on. You get the idea. But we'll leave the last word to an expert in this field.
I'm officially over it. The regular refs need to get back on the field. Enough is enough.
— Mike Pereira (@MikePereira) September 16, 2012