Recently, the National Football League’s referees have come under fire for controversial calls made in the Conference Championship round of the NFL playoffs.

Many point to the pass interference no-call with two minutes left in the Los Angeles Rams versus New Orleans Saints game where LA defender Nickell Robey-Coleman hit New Orleans receiver Tommylee Lewis before the ball even got to the receiver.

This one play has raised questions about the performance of NFL referees in the regular season, and in big moments. Middletown High School students give their opinion on the NFL referees.

MHS senior, Ronald Chilson said, “They ruin the team’s season by messing up the calls.” MHS senior Kevin Johnson also believed this point but expanded in this point by saying these refs robbed the Saints of a Super Bowl run.

However, not all students agreed it ended the Saint’s season

“The call was awful but I don’t think it affected the game too much because if he didn’t get the pass interference, he would have picked the ball off,” said MHS junior Brandon Malko, “In overtime, the Saints had their chance to win.”

MHS senior Cole Bromfield believed that the call was bad but both teams got bad calls and it did not decide the game.

These calls have raised a lot of questions about what refs should do in the future to avoid falling into all of this controversy.

Johnson said, “They should focus more on player safety, watch out more for helmet to helmet, and maybe loosen up on roughing the passer penalties.”

Chilson had a different point from Johnson, he said that penalties like this should definitely be review-able, especially in big moments like that (End of Saints and Rams game).

Malko agreed with Chilson, he said that penalties should be able to be “challenged or reviewed” by the teams and officials. Thats fax