Ok, so to set up the play.

Washington and N.O are playing. It's in overtime and Washington has the ball. The receiver catches the ball in the flat, turn to run upfield and gets hit by the defender. The ball comes out, and both jump for it, but only push it down the field a few yards. Another defender comes over and picks the ball up. The play on the field was ruled not a fumble, so the whistle blew.

Now, here is the problem I have with this. They review the play, and it was shown that the ball did come out. But, the official blew the whistle about the time the two players on the ground leaped for the ball, and a good second before the player who picked it up recovered.

I was under the impression that once the whistle blows, the play is dead. NOTHING that happens after the whistle, counts with respect to the play. NOTHING!

So, after review, the play was ruled a fumble, and the ball was given to N.O.

I have never seen a more incompetent ruling in my 40 years of living. I have seen many bad calls, but this is not a bad call. It's incompetence.

Oh, and just so you know. I am from Dallas, and am a Cowboy fan. It does not bother me that Washington lost, I just despise poor refereeing.

Yeah, they pretty much just handed the game over to the Saints, they didn't want to tarnish that perfect record ya know.....

You watching the cowboys game realMafoo? Know the score?

No. I DVR it and watch it later. You can get through a game in about an hour that way. :)

Pretty much a blown judgment call, I didn't see any conclusive evidence that it was a fumble, as his arm hit the ground at the same time the ball "seemed" to come out, therefore he should have been ruled down by contact as it had initially been ruled. But I'm sure what I saw was different than what thousands of other people saw.......

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Actually, if they had called it right, N.O. would have won by a touchdown, because the guy who got the ball would have run it in. They way it worked out, they only won by a field goal. So if it comes down to point for home field advantage, the refs still screwed it up.

But that's not the point. The point is the Ref made a bad call. You don't get to correct it by breaking the rules. If what they did they never get held accountable for, I would like to tell all the NLF players this:

I know you have been taught the when the whistle blows, that the play is over, but it's been proven that refs on the field have the ability to count the actions that happen after the whistle. So, please continue playing for at least a second or two after words. Don't worry about your safety, or the safety of the players, and please don't worry about personal fouls. Remember, the other guy is going to be playing a few seconds longer too.

I would like to thank the refs who called the Washington/N.O. game for demonstrating this to us.