Lingerie Football League: We Fired Some Current NFL Replacement Refs

Credit: Lingerie Football League

If you haven’t heard about the Monday Night Meltdown in the NFL yet, you probably need to get out more. To sumarize: A last-second play was called a touchdown by one referee, and an interception by another referee, causing a half-billion dollars in betting funds to switch hands and an outcry to have the league’s regular officiating crew come back from its well-documented lockout.

But like every big story that has ever happened in the world of sports, the initial cause of disturbance was just the tip of the iceberg. It has come to light that some of the NFL’s replacement referees used to work in the Lingerie Football League, but were let go from the underwear-laden league because of their poor performance. Mitch Mortaza, president and founder of the Lingerie Football League, sent an email to several outlets at 12:49 this morning.

Mortaza’s statement was also posted to the LFL’s official Facebook page:

“Because of the LFL’s perception it is that much more critical for us to hire officiating crews that are competent, not only for the credibility of our game but to keep our athletes safer. Due to several on-field incompetent officiating we chose to part ways with with a couple crews which apparently are now officiating in the NFL. We have a lot of respect for our officials but we felt the officiating was not in line with our expectations.

We have not made public comment to date because we felt it was not our place to do so. However in light of tonight’s event, we felt it was only fair that NFL fans knew the truth as to who are officiating these games”

The statement does not make it clear whether anyone officiating the Packers/Seahawks game Monday night were ever referees for the LFL. Whether the LFL’s statement is accurate or simply a plug for the LFL and a stab at the NFL’s current referee situation, a point has been made.

Though the Lingerie Bowl was first shown on Pay Per View in 2004, the LFL was created in 2009 as a 7-on-7 all-women football league in which the players dress in — you guessed it — lingerie, shoulder and knee pads and helmets. The full-contact sport is televised on international television and on MTV2 in the United States. The league comes to an apex on Super Bowl Sunday, with the Lingerie Bowl being shown on TV a few hours before the NFL’s Super Bowl. It’s often classed as “the other Super Bowl,” along with the Animal Planet’s ever-so-cute Puppy Bowl.

So when the LFL is placed into the same category as the Puppy Bowl, it’s easy to see how football fans would be upset to know that some of their beloved NFL games are being officiated by crews who were let go from the sexier of the two former groups.

Now let’s just hope there aren’t any former Puppy Bowl refs calling games in the NFL either.

Follow me on Twitter at @LanceMadden.

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