NFL Fires Referee Mid Season

[Sassy Squatch]

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/2...ve-immediately

The NFL has taken the highly unusual step of firing down judge Hugo Cruz for performance reasons, sources confirmed to ESPN on Thursday.

Cruz last worked in Week 6 and is no longer an NFL employee.

Cruz, who joined the NFL in 2015, was responsible for one high-profile mistake this season. He missed an obvious false start by Los Angeles Chargers left tackle Russell Okung on a scoring play in Week 6 against the Cleveland Browns. He did not work in Week 7.

The news was first reported by FootballZebras.com, which tracks college and pro football officiating trends. According to the website, the NFL has never fired an official in-season during the Super Bowl era because of performance.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by LagunaSWana

Came here today to see if I was the only one that felt this was, by far, the worst crew of the season. Phantom holding calls, no calls, and the egregious personal foul on Reid on their 2pt attempt. Just outrageously bad today.

Lots of bad calls, but none more obvious than when the Panthers lineman (RT?) started two seconds early on the Panthers touchdown. The guy was practically moving forward when the rest of the team was in the huddle, and it wasn't called. I don't know how you miss that as an official.