NFL Hired Replacement Officials Not Good Enough For The Lingerie Football League

Some of the replacement officials the NFL is using were apparently not good enough to make calls in the Lingerie Football League, which fired some of those same officials due to incompetence.

The replacement referee who was on duty for the NFL’s Hall of Fame game back in August between the Arizona Cardinals and New Orleans Saints was outed as a former Lingerie Football League official by former NFL vice president of officiating Mike Pereira. While the LFL declined comment on the disclosure since it came out, it no longer was biting its lip following Monday night’s debacle between the Green Bay Packers and the Seattle Seahawks that cost the Packers the game.

“Because of the LFL's perception, it is that much more critical for us to hire officiating crews [who] are competent, not only for the credibility of our game but to keep our athletes safer. Due to several on-field incompetent officiating [incidents], we chose to part ways with a couple of crews [who] apparently are now officiating in the NFL. We have a lot of respect for our officials, but we felt the officiating was not in line with our expectations,” the LFL said in a statement to Deadspin.com.

The Lingerie Football League, which features bikini-clad women playing football, said it decided to break its silence following the controversial call that awarded a touchdown to Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Golden Tate, leading to a 14-12 victory over Green Bay.

Packers cornerback M.D. Jennings clearly had possession of the ball and should have been awarded a game-clinching interception for the Packers, but the replacement officials ruled the play a touchdown for Tate in a call that drew the ire of millions of football fans.

“We have not made public comment to date because we felt it was not our place to do so,” the LFL told Deadspin. “However, in light of [Monday night’s] event, we felt it was only fair that NFL fans knew the truth as to who are officiating these games.”

In an interview with Yahoo! Sports, LFL Commissioner Mitch Mortaza couldn’t help but pile on the NFL and its commissioner, Roger Goodell.

"It was a bit of a shock to see guys [who] couldn't officiate in our league were officiating in the NFL,” Mortaza said.

The LFL commissioner said he dismissed officials because “they were hurting our overall broadcast caliber.

"And if it's opening up our players for potential injury, those things raise red flags here. Is it hurting overall credibility? When either of those two things are compromised, it's time to start thinking about parting ways."