NFL replacement referee who blew touchdown call in Green Bay Packers …

One day after becoming a national goat for making one of the worst calls in professional football history, replacement referee and full-time banker Lance Easley is eager to speak about the gridiron gaffe — but says the NFL won’t let him.

“We’re not allowed to talk to the media. You’ll have to call the NFL,” Easley told the Daily News by phone from his Santa Maria, Calif., home. “That’s the NFL’s policy whether I agree with it or not.”

Easley’s no comment came amid the ongoing furor over his badly blown touchdown call that snatched victory from Green Bay Packers and gave gamblers conniption fits.

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But fans, particular those in Wisconsin, said the 52-year-old southern California banker with no previous professional or major college refereeing experience should have never left his desk to become a replacement during the NFL’s lockout of unionized refs.

Even the Lingerie Football League piled on, revealing that some of the scab refs weren’t qualified to work its games.

JOSHUA TRUJILLO/seattlepi.com

Seattle receiver Golden Tate wrestled ball out of Packer defensive back M.D. Jennings’ hands after Jennings intercepted the ball in the end zone. The officials ruled it a touchdown for the Seahawks.

“Due to several on-field occurrences of incompetent officiating, we chose to part ways with a crew which apparently is now officiating in the NFL,” said Mitch Mortaza, commissioner of the female bra-and-panty league. “We have a lot of respect for our officials, but we felt the officiating was not in line with our expectations.”

In light of Easley’s botched called, Mortaza said he felt he had to speak out because he wanted NFL fans to know “the truth as to who are officiating these games.”

Mortaza didn’t reveal if Easley was among the crew booted from league for incompetence.

Meanwhile, the “academy” that trained Easley for his part-time gig as a football official said he should have never been on the pro field.

The Stars and Stripes Academy for Football Officials in Utah said Easley underwent three days of training earlier this year to become a Division I college ref. It put out a statement distancing the school from the dunce.

“The academy does not claim responsibility for Mr. Easley’s successes or perceived failures as an official,” the organization said in a statement on its website. “There are no NFL officials on the staff, and training is focused solely on college rules, mechanics and philosophies.”

Ted S. Warren/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Lance Easley said he’s eager to talk about the fiasco at the end of Green Bay-Seattle game, but says he can’t due to NFL policy. Easley’s no comment came after his badly blown touchdown call on Hail Mary pass that snatched victory away from the Packers.

The academy also said it was “unaware of Mr. Easley’s intentions to become an NFL replacement official.”

Easley was thrust into the white-hot spotlight in the nationally televised Monday Night Football game between the Packers and the Seattle Seahawks.

With no time left on the clock, Easley ruled that Seattle wideout Golden Tate scored a TD after out-wrestling Packer M.D. Jennings for the ball.

Replays showed Tate should have been flagged for pass interference for blatantly pushing off defender Sam Shields. But even beyond that, replacement ref Derrick Rhone-Denn made the right call, signaling that Jennings intercepted the ball.

After video review, the replacement ref team upheld Easley’s botched call, giving the Seahawks 14-12 win.

In hindsight, the NFL said Tuesday that Easley and his crew messed up, but that the decision would stand.

Before being plucked from obscurity and placed on the biggest sports stage, Easley was a full-time banker and, at best, a novice referee.

He’s the only replacement ref on the field Monday night with no prior professional experience. Before this season, Easley’s experience was limited to working high school and junior college football games.

Bill Bramhall

Even Easley’s hometown newspaper, the Santa Maria Times, called him a “small-time” ref.

One assistant coach at Allan Hancock College, a junior college team in California, said Easley had refereed “one or two” of his team’s games, but that he didn’t remember much about him. “Very little,” the assistant coach said. “I never paid too much attention to it.”

Only Easley’s Santa Maria neighbor spoke in his defense, calling him a “nice guy” and a “pillar of the community.”

“It’s too bad it happen,” one neighbor said. “But these things happen and we have to move on.”

But not all of Easley’s neighbors were on the same page. Juanita Kozak was unsympathetic.

“I think he needs to go back to referee school,” Kozak said.

One aggrieved Wisconsin state senator was so upset he posted NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s phone number on Twitter and urged fans to call him and complain.

And New Jersey state Sen. Stephen Sweeney, the top-ranking Democrat, vowed legislation banning replacement refs from working games in the Garden State — home of the Jets and Giants.

“The NFL sued New Jersey over sports betting because they were concerned about the integrity of the game,” Sweeney said. “They can’t have it both ways.”

Monday night’s horrific call capped a weekend of bad refereeing throughout the NFL, strongly suggesting the replacement zebra stripes are not ready for prime time.

Overnight, Easley became the poster boy for mediocrity as fans demanded that the NFL immediately settle a labor lockout with unionized refs. The two sides are scheduled to meet Wednesday.

“It’s getting to the point where people are watching the games for the train wrecks and not the games themselves anymore,” said Anthony Limongi, 24, of Manhattan.

Daryl Henry, 30, of Brooklyn, a referee in the Colonial Athletic Association, said it wasn’t fair for the NFL to put Easley in a precarious position.

“It’s a totally different type of football,” Henry said. “You can’t blame them.”

With Edgar Sandoval

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