Dean Blandino
Vice President of Officiating
National Football League

Dear Sir,

I would like to call your attention to the job performance of one of your referees. Specifically I’m referring to Jeff Triplette. As I’m sure you are aware, this man has had some problems in the past, but his performance in the past two weeks has left me believing that this man does not belong in an official’s uniform.

In the Sunday Night Football game between the Redskins and the Giants, Jeff Triplette directly affected the outcome of the game. I’m sure you are aware of what he did, and so I’m not going to go into detail. This is inexcusable.

In this past Sunday’s game between the Colts and the Bengals, Mr. Triplette once again proved that he does not have what it takes to be an NFL referee. Let me set it up for you just in case you haven’t heard yet.

There is 1:14 left in the second quarter. The Bengals are on the Colts 1 yard line. It’s fourth and goal, and the Bengals are going to attempt a touchdown instead of kicking a field goal. The ball is snapped, and then handed to Benjarvus Green-Ellis, who moves forward and to the right towards the end zone. At the four yard line, the Colts nose tackle Josh Chapman touched Green-Ellis’ foot, causing him to trip and/or stumble. As he went down, he fell forward. His knee hit the ground at about 1.5 yards out from the end zone. The ball was at the 1 yard line when his knee was down. After his knee hit the ground, he slid into the end zone.

The ball was declared down at the 1 yard line. Since it was in the last two minutes of the half, the play was automatically reviewed. Jeff Triplette went under the hood and then emerged to say, “After review, the ruling on the field is reversed. The runner is not touched and slides into the end zone. It is a touchdown.”

When questioned, he stated that he was only looking at whether or not the runner was touched at the goal line, totally ignoring the fact that Green-Ellis was falling because of the contact with Josh Chapman.

The NFL rule book states in section 2 Article 1(a):

…if after defensive contact, any part of a runner’s leg above the ankle or any part of his arm above the wrist touches the ground, the runner is down.”

This means that, since Chapman touched him at the line of scrimmage, Green-Ellis was “down” and the ball was “dead” at the 1 yard line.

Because of this and his many other errors, I believe that Mr. Triplette’s employ by the National Football League should be immediately terminated before he changes the outcome of any more games.

Thank you for your prompt attention.

Steve Picray
NFL Fan

PS: Here is a good write up by a professional journalist who agrees with my position.