{"id":819985,"date":"2026-03-18T22:43:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T22:43:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/819985\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T22:43:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T22:43:19","slug":"nfl-preparing-for-replacement-refs-worst-call-ever-versus-the-browns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/819985\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL preparing for replacement refs: Worst call ever versus the Browns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">One of the things that makes football great is the number of variables involved in the game. Not only are there 22 players on the field, more than basketball and baseball combined, but weather, field conditions, the fans, and the referees can all impact the game in a variety of ways.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Heading into the 2026 season, replacement referees might become the big story for the NFL:<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">As noted in the article, the league used replacement officials in 2013, and it \u201cwas universally criticized by coaches and players\u2026\u201d The final game with replacement officials was the \u201cFail Mary\u201d ruling:<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Bad calls are a part of the game, but Cleveland fans have a few that likely stand out to them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The Duke Johnson fumble that he recovered but was still called a turnover, despite Johnson standing outside of the pile with the football (this article\u2019s lead photo), and this helmet-to-helmet hit on Rashard Higgins in the playoffs stand out in recent memory:<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">(<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MikeRezNFL\/status\/1907408944135324010\" rel=\"nofollow\">Mike followed it up<\/a>, noting he was focused on the helmet-to-helmet part of the play, not blaming Higgins)<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">What other bad calls stand out to you Browns fans? What is the worst call against the orange and brown of all time?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the things that makes football great is the number of variables involved in the game. Not&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":819986,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2054],"tags":[86,85,54,60181,1864,2337,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-819985","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-browns","8":"tag-browns","9":"tag-cleveland","10":"tag-cleveland-browns","11":"tag-cleveland-browns-history","12":"tag-cleveland-browns-news","13":"tag-clevelandbrowns","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116252600560801879","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=819985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/819986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}