NLL Insider

First off, last week’s player poll focusing on the fans was by far our most talked about one so far this year.

Absolutely hilarious stuff and almost as good as this Mamma Lucia commercial I haven’t been able to get outta my head all week. The best thing, the Wings fans on the boards actually got off on the boy’s callin’ ‘em out (among other things). I thought they mighta got a little pissed, but if anything, they felt honored by it (kinda S&Mish if you ask me… kidding).

This week we switched focus to the other people that, besides the players and fans, play a huge factor on game days. Love ‘em (I assume some of them are married) or hate ‘em, we asked the guys about their thoughts on the stripes.

They’re supposed to keep their beaks closed unless they wanna pay a fine, but this week, we let ‘em tee off a bit on the guys that work maybe the sport’s most thankless job.

Also, this poll wasn’t drummed up just so players had a chance to kick the zebras behind their backs, definitely not (well, maybe just a little). We truthfully wanted to know what guys thought and even had some positive stuff in there. Actually, some pretty good stuff came outta this week’s poll that makes a lotta sense. But yeah, at the same time, there were definitely some guys that have a serious hate-on for some refs, but that’s no shocker.

And for the Q’s we ask the boys that deals with their fave and not so fave men in stripes, we basically hammered down the most active refs in 2008, along with a couple we thought would need to be on there. We had a write in vote too, so everyone was fair game.

 Anyways, here she goes…

 Comments:

1. Are you satisfied with the current state of refereeing in the NLL?

“Way, way too inconsistent. US and Canadian refs call it way different!”

“Right now we are getting one good ref and one that is sub par and is afraid to make any calls.”

“Too much inconsistency. New refs need to know when to make the call, and more importantly, when not to. Refs trying to keep games close is obvious.”

“It’s terrible. Refs should not have an outcome on the game. Refs are also holding personal grudges.”

2. Who do you think is the “best” ref in the NLL?

“At least Todd used to play!” on Todd Lorenz

“He never calls me in the crease!” on Rick Lum

“Always steady and rarely off.” on Rick Lum

“When he’s not paying attention to the crowd, he’s the best in the game!” on Rick Lum

“Outside of the ACC, he lets players play.” on Bill Fox

3. Who do you think is the “worst” ref in the NLL?

“Surveying this list of officials makes me cringe.”

“If I could throw a ball at a ref and not get suspended it would be Fox for sure.” on Bill Fox

“Takes stuff too personal.” on Mark Gardonio

“This guy is the pits. He has no clue and doesn’t have the money to buy a vowel.” on Roy Condon

“No idea what he’s doing!! Makes sh** up as the game goes on. MILL is long gone!! on Roy Condon

“He made a joke of the New York/Buffalo game.” on Mark Trinaistich

4. Do you ever blame a ref or a blown call for a loss?

“No, but I’ve seen some pretty bad calls that have had some serious effect on games!”

“Spies called a goal in a game in TO that hit the post. You could see it on the jumbotron. It cost us the game and a playoff birth.”

“There are some game deciding calls, but things could have gone differently earlier in the game, so no.”

“A game cannont be broken down to one single call.”

“No, except maybe this one time in the first round of playoffs when Zywiki scored with 4 teammates in the crease?!”

5. Do you feel former NLL players would make good refs?

“Yes. They’ll know when to just let ‘em play.”

“It depends on the guy and what he played. Some guys would let too much go (i.e. D guys)”

“Yes. I’d love to have reason to chirp them for being old and retired!”

“They often played the game a certain way so tend to be biased to certain styles. They’re competent but not good.”

6. Which current NLL team do you feel the refs play favorites with?

Note: Also asked the guys to add in the comments section which players specifically got away with the most.

These were the most mentioned guys: Jim Veltman, Dan Ladouceur, Gavin Prout, Brodie Merrill, Dan Dawson, Colin Doyle, John Grant, Josh Sims, Ryan Boyle and John Tavares

“It used to be the Gait brothers that got away with everything. No one has really taken their place yet.”

“Grant gets away with a lot of dirty sh**.”

“JT tells ‘em what to call!”

“Prout talks to the refs all game. They allow him to say anything he wants. Gets calls because he complains!”

“Gavin Prout could kill someone and not get called.”

“I heard Ryan Boyle cooks them dinner before a game in the Big Apple”

“Jim Veltman gets touched and it’s a penalty, but Brodie Merril gets away with murder because he is… the best player in the world (???).”

“They are the golden boys of the league that the front office wants to see do well.” on New York Titans

7. Should the NLL incorporate video replay to assist the refs in making game defining decisions?

“The NFL has a perfect way of doing it!”

“It’ll let them see how bad they really are!”

“If we want to be in the same sentence as other pro sports we need to make sure we are using the same technology.”

“Yeah, but it might bankrupt San Jose! They’d have to buy them, right?”

“Been saying this for years!! Cost has always been a factor but how do you put a price on ending a season with a blown call???!!!” on NFL style replays

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