Rams receiver Puka Nacua may soon be hearing from the league office.
Via Sarah Barshop of ESPN.com, Nacua recently made critical comments about NFL game officials during a livestream with two guys who have never been in my kitchen.
“The refs are the worst,” Nacua said. “These guys are lawyers. They want to be on TV, too. . . . You don’t think he’s texting his friends in the group chat like, ‘Yo, you guys just saw me on “Sunday Night Football.” LIke, ‘That wasn’t P.I., like, but I called it.’ . . . I mean, these guys are normal human beings, too.”
One of the hosts mentioned that Nacua could be fined for saying what he said. “A hundred percent,” Nacua said.
Nacua made his comments in a lighthearted way, but he said what he said. Starting with, “The refs are the worst.”
The NFL has fined multiple players in the past for criticizing officials. Earlier this year, the league fined Texans running back Joe Mixon $25,000 for something he didn’t say — and then they tried to fine him for something he did say. (It didn’t stick.)
The sensitivity to criticism serves only to highlight the basis for the criticism. The officials make mistakes. And the league far too often opts for secrecy, not transparency, when mistakes are made.
The effort to circle the wagons by imposing fines on those who question the officiating serves only to increase suspicions for some regarding the possibility that the mistakes aren’t really mistakes. It’s one of the reasons the league hated gambling, before it realized how much money could be made from it.
Then there’s the practical impact of Nacua’s criticism. Starting tomorrow night, we’ll all find out whether and to what extent he’ll get calls from any of the folks he has told the world are “the worst.”
