This officiating crew needs to be fired immediately

[Guest]

@FessVike said:
In one of the articles on ESPN 1500 Minneapolis, he does state he told the team they knew this would happen and they had to keep their cool. So it seemed they were expecting bad calls. 

While this is a disturbing thought, it makes me realize what a great coach Zimmer is. To be fair, maybe every coach in the league gets his team prepped for the officiating crew, but I love that by doing this, he is effectively telling the team they need play 100% clean football, or else we've got two opponents to contend with.

Is the local radio going nuts over the non-calls?

[Guest]

@Vikergirl said:

@dadevike said:
And still, Zimmer says nothing. He needs to make it uncomfortable for the NFL and the officials when they blatantly screw his team. Otherwise, there is no reason not to. He needs to Man up; talk about the no call on Diggs and compare that to the P.I. on Rhodes. Bring photos to the press conference. Identify by name who called the PI on Rhodes and who decided not to call it on the Diggs play. Talk about what effect the call and the no call had on the game. Let them know that your players work too hard every day and risk injury every play and it is not too much to ask that professional refs be both competent and neutral. But I'm sure he won't . . . until a blown call ends our season. Too bad.

I am amazed at his restraint. I know he wants to say something but he knows better. It has to come from the owners. I don't want Zimmer getting in trouble. And don't think for a minute they wouldn't pounce on the opportunity to punish him or the Vikings. It's sad that he was expecting crappy calls but not surprising. As a fan, I knew they would come. 

I think this is the coach's responsibility, not the owner's. Owners can negotiate financing, deal with the city and the state, talk to other owners about League business at the off season owners' meetings.  But on the field stuff about your team is for the HC. The Wilfs rightly do not get involved in such things. They hired football people for that.

Wanting to avoid a fine is the weakest possible reason for keeping his mouth shut. Fear of retribution against the team seems pointless since they are already suffering the retribution without having spoken up. 

It is the worst of all worlds: we'll screw you and you will keep quiet.

[Guest]

The crazy thing is that the first Detroit game was just about as bad.  I was at that game and there were at least 3 or 4 absolute muggings of our WRs, and none were called, including two absolutely pathetic non-calls in a span of about 3 plays on the same drive.

[Guest]

@CLOBIMON said:
Zimmer challenged a rather obvious play a while after the non-call for Diggs and I was really wondering if it wasn't just to complain more about that and other things. They showed him saying something rather heated and pointing at the other end of the field than the players currently were, like where the Diggs play happened. Maybe not but I like to think that was the purpose.

That is exactly what I told my boys.  Zimmer needed to "talk" to the refs and also get his team to retain composure

[Guest]

This might be far-fetched but it's a fact that refs jobbed us in the 70s and 80s because Bud had a long running grudge feud with them.  He was an arrogant jerk at times.   Maybe somehow that has carried over in the ranks of refs as a longstanding bias against the team.