Kluwe: Replacement refs 'making football incredibly painful to watch'

Chris Kluwe weighed in on the replacement refs in a memo to Deadspin. He isn't pleased.

September 5, 2012 at 10:53PM
Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe
Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe (Dml - Star Tribune/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

We know that Vikings punter Chris Kluwe doesn't mind tell you what he thinks, which is much appreciated about 110 percent of the time.

The latest from Kluwe is a memo to Deadspin.com as part of its roundtable, along with Slate.com, on the NFL.

Kluwe was asked his thoughts about the officials who are working because the NFL has locked out the regular refs. He acknowledged that he's a perfect person to offer up thoughts, writing that: "One of the perks of my job is that I get a lot of opportunities to watch the refs in action, since punting doesn't exactly take up a lot of time during the game."

Among others things, Kluwe recounted: "We walked out for a punt, and my long snapper didn't feel like going over to the other hash. What did he do? He told the ref, "No, you have the ball in the wrong place. Move it over here." And what did the ref do? HE MOVED THE BALL. No! Bad ref! Have some confidence in your abilities—you tell us what to do, not the other way around. (I absolutely murdered the subsequent punt by the way, so that was cool."

To read the rest, you have to go here.

about the writer

about the writer

Howard Sinker

Digital Sports Editor

Howard Sinker is digital sports editor at startribune.com and curates the website's Sports Upload blog. He is also a senior instructor in Media and Cultural Studies at Macalester College in St. Paul.

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