Belichick's $50,000 Slap on the Wrist

Any Patriots fans watching the game Sunday night against the Baltimore Ravens witnessed everything that is wrong with the replacement referees, and no one felt this frustration more than Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick. Rightfully so, after a string of very questionable calls, and unnecessary conferences giving the Ravens added time-outs any coach would have been infuriated. But what really sealed the deal was the lack of communication between the referees and Belichick following a game winning field goal that was called good, but from the field looked like it could have very easily have been wide right. This lack of communication is what really got to Belichick as he told reporters after Sunday night’s loss, “I’m trying to get an explanation for obviously an important call, play, in that game. That’s the number one thing between coaches and officials. It’s always at the forefront. It’s just communication of what’s going on, of what’s happening.”

So, in an attempt to hear what the referees were going to say about that controversial call, and ask if it was possible to have the play reviewed, Belichick ran down to the tunnel and tried to grab one of the arms of an official to stop him and talk. Needless to say, the NFL was not going to let this go unnoticed and on Tuesday, they fined Belichick $50,000 for what they called, ” Impermissible contact with an official”. It is understandable that the NFL protect these replacement referees from the berating that is going

on from head coaches across the league. It can’t be argued that Belichick was wrong for actually grabbing a referee, but given that the situation resulted entirely from the NFL not wanting to pay the real referees an extra four percent in pay, one might think there would be a little leeway for the Pats head coach.