"The criticism of the NFL officials is as strong as it has ever been,..."

[TheRealOrange]

...was a sentence in an article I read this morning.  Is it?  I don't usually watch the NFL, but I have been for the past few weeks, especially on Red Zone.  I have been saying to friends here that if these guys were the "replacement refs," they would be absolutely slammed by the announcers and media.  They have made some horrible calls that have impacted game results.  The announcers will usually say something like, "I don't agree with that call," and leave it at that.  I'm sorry, but these guys have been awful; the worst I have ever seen.  Often the calls are seemingly made in the interest of "safety" but they are just flat out wrong.  Using replay doesn't help, since even the officiating "experts" disagree with many of the review results, and most of the bad calls aren't reviewable.  For example, a defensive back got called for pass interference in the endzone last weekend, and there was literally no contact.  None.  And, the official who made the call was nowhere near the play, but still made the call.  Perhaps it was his angle, but it was an atrocious call.  Stuff like that makes watching the games very difficult.  And it seems to be happening in every game I see.  I can't believe this isn't getting the kind of attention and criticism the replacement refs got.  Well, maybe I can.  Totally hypocritical.