Back in week four of this NFL season, the Detroit Lions had a chance to beat the Seattle Seahawks in the final moments of the game, but wide receiver Calvin Johnson fumbled the ball and it went out of bounds in the end zone. The refs ruled it a touchback and Seattle ball, but since it was batted out by Seahawks’ defender K.J. Wright, it should have been a penalty and the ball should have been given back to the Lions. Fans across the country were outraged at this bogus call and almost everyone football fan weighed in on it. The Lions lost the game, causing them to drop to 0-4, essentially ruining their season.

This was the worst call in what has been an atrocious season for NFL officiating. The scary thing is that blown calls like this aren’t even the officiating system’s biggest issue.

The biggest controversy in the NFL this season has been deciding what is and is not a catch. After a controversial call caused the Dallas Cowboys to lose in the playoffs last season, the NFL revised the definition of a catch. The rule now requires a receiver to make a “football move” in order to establish himself as a runner and complete a catch. This new rule hasn’t helped at all, and has actually ended up making the definition of a catch even more confusing because nobody knows what a “football move” is.

Every time there is a questionable catch, commentators have former referees call in and give their opinion on the play, and it often ends up being the opposite of what the refs on the field call. When former refs and the refs on the field are calling a play two different ways, that’s when you as a viewer know something is wrong. How can you run a league where the officials and even the players don’t know the rules?

“I wish we could just use sense. You look at it — Did the guy catch it? Yeah, he caught it,” Seahawks’ coach Pete Carroll said.

The term “football move” is so vague that it’s pretty much useless. I’m sick and tired of seeing somebody make an obvious catch, but having it called back because “they didn’t have full possession” or “they didn’t make a football move”. If you have the ball in your hands, it’s probably a catch, it’s not very hard to make that call.

The officiating has been absolutely garbage all season long. I would rather have the replacement refs of 2012 than the current zebras. There’s no excuse for the continuity of these horrible calls and stupid, vague rules. Some people try to argue that the refs have to make split second decisions on the field and can sometimes get them wrong. I agree that bad calls are made and you just have to live with them sometimes, but the fact that it’s happening every week and in extremely crucial moments, is concerning. You can’t just blow a game and say, “Sorry, we had to make a decision on the spot” and then make the same mistake the next week. There has to be some accountability.

The referees have a job to do. They’re trained to know the rulebook by heart and make the correct calls, and if they can’t do that, then they shouldn’t be in the league. Incompetence is the only quality the NFL referees have produced this season. In any other profession you lose your job if you consistently fail to meet the expectations and referees need to be held to the same standards.

The NFL needs to either train them better or simply remove them from the league if they can’t get their job done. As for the league officials, please get rid of the useless “football move” definition in the rule book. We as fans want to enjoy watching football without listening to stupid referees contradicting themselves week in and week out.