On December 19, 1999, Triplette accidentally hit the Cleveland Browns' Orlando Brown in the eye with a penalty flag weighed with ball bearings. Video shows that Triplette immediately apologized to Brown, who was then tended to by the medical staff, but a few minutes later, Brown attempted to rejoin the team on the field for the next play, but Triplette prevented him from entering for the next play per NFL rules which stipulate that if a player incurs an injury timeout, they must sit out the next play. Not wanting to sit out the next play, and becoming frustrated with Triplette who injured him, Brown shoved Triplette to the ground. Brown was ejected.

The Packers were also penalized in the third quarter for unsportsmanlike conduct when players on the sideline trickled onto the field.

"Sideline penalty is no excuse," coach Mike McCarthy said. "That's clearly on the head coach. I was disappointed, to say the least. We had two warnings, so I thought the officials did an excellent job as far as communicating it to us. It was a very emotional, energetic game. Our guys were into it, but we were sloppy on the boundaries."

I read somewhere on sports.yahoo.com/nfl that the Triplette crew has been rated as the worst officiating crew in the NFL. They're not liked very much and hopefully won't have jobs in 2012 as NFL officials.

Originally Posted by: zombieslayer 

Mike McCarthy is taking one for Shawn Slocum, it was Shawn that messed up. And the guys on the radio said you could see Mike screaming at Shawn about it.

Originally Posted by: Zero2Cool 

Speaking of which I don't understand that the NFL, America's most popular game, doesn't have professional full time refs. I understand they earn about 60K a year. I believe there are many people who would take that job and do a better job. I'm not saying the present refs do badly but it could be even better.

Triplett's team and Slow Cums team - what a combination.

Originally Posted by: PackerTraxx 

Yeah, but Mike McCarthy also isn't the kind of coach who is ever going to call a ref a fuckwit even if he thinks he is.

I didn't see the presser or wherever he said it, but my read of the words is that the ghost of Fleischer had a temporary bit of influence.

Unless Mike McCarthy invites me into his lockerroom/office/home and tells me over a beer, I'm going to take such a statement with an exceedingly large dose of salt.

My gut is too big to mess with. Triplette and company are legalistic fuckwits, and that's just what it is.

If I wanted to go on eyewitness testimony, I'd still be a legalistic fuckwit, too.

:)

Originally Posted by: Wade 

So do you think Mike McCarthy made up a big lie to cover for the refs? Why would he do that? McCarthy has publicly disagreed with calls before, most recently with the roughing the passer call against Desmond Bishop a few weeks ago, which he said afterwards was a "perfect tackle." It's no big deal.

Originally Posted by: Greg C.