Dear Green Bay Packer Fans,

I’m sorry. Sorry you had to feel the sting of a bitter Monday Night Football defeat. Last night’s game against my Seattle Seahawks was shaping up to be one for the books. Now, it will only go down in infamy.

Not only were both of our teams the victims of multiple phantom penalties, but you had to endure watching your beloved Packers be on the losing end of a controversial interception/touchdown on the last play of the game. Then, to add insult to injury, after the touchdown was upheld and your team left the stadium, you had to watch them make their way back out of the locker room and on to the field for a moot extra point.

Far be it for me to rub salt in your wound. The truth is, I’ve been in your shoes before and know what its like to get stiffed by the referees. One only has to go back to the 2006 Super Bowl to see when it was rather obvious the REAL refs favored the Pittsburgh Steelers. Why just last year, one of the referees who officiated that game admitted that he had made serious errors.

Sour grapes? I think not. Losses like these are hard to take and not soon forgotten. Take comfort in the fact that you got gipped in a regular season game and not on the biggest stage of all.

As a footnote to my letter, and in a bizarre case of irony, the NFL’s officiating supervisor, Phil Luckett, had this to say about the need for an extra point attempt: .

“The PAT is an extension of the game, so we have to finish the game. When a touchdown is made on the last play, you have to do the extra point, in regulation.”

For those with short memories (not for Seahawks fans like me) Phil Luckett is the same man who officiated over a botched coin toss in a Pittsburgh Steelers / Detroit Lions game, and awarded a phantom touchdown to Vinny Testaverde and the New York Jets against Seattle back in 1998. A “touchdown” that ultimately became the deciding factor in implementing instant replay the following season.

Best of luck with the rest of the year Packer fans. Hopefully, the next time we meet again on the grid iron, the real refs will be back.
Sincerely, a Seahawks Fan.

Article first published as “An Letter to Green Bay Packer Fans” on Technorati