JACK'S SMACK: NFL makes terrible call on referees

The NFL season opening on a Wednesday night just doesn't feel right.

Of course, it’s not going to look right either when you see high school and small college refs on the field trying to keep up with the defending Super Bowl champs.

The Giants and Cowboys kick off the season Wednesday night instead of Thursday because of Barack Obama.

Yep, the convention and upcoming election trumps everything when it comes to politicians searching for eyeballs.

I don't really care one way or another when this game is played, but I do have a strong concern about the credentials of those blowing the whistles.

The league will be going with replacement refs. I don't blame the zebra's -- this is clearly on the NFL.

This is the purest form of arrogance by a sports league that is completely going unchecked.

I always thought the most hypocritical sports people presided in the ivory tower of the NCAA. I'm not so sure of that now.

The NFL is changing everything about the way the game is played because of safety concerns. Yet they're ready to put these inexperienced whistle blowers on the same field with the fastest and largest athletes in sports.

The league likes to boast about how good their product is, and it is, but they're running out guys to officiate – guys who they previously fired for incompetence.

Look, players have already figured out what they can get away with during the preseason games.

I saw a story in Sports Illustrated about the Hopper book – that’s slang for the referee's play book. Anyhow, it has nearly 200,000 words when it comes to enforcing the rules of the game.

That’s almost 10,000 words more than the New Testament. And the Bible doesn't even have diagrams.

The league is asking the replacement officials to digest and enforce these rules.

We're talking about a multi-billion dollar business that's about to turn this season into a comedy of errors, for one reason -- nothing but pure greed.

Shame on the NFL.

That’s Jack’s Smack.