On Monday night, the NFL replacement officials made a terrible call that robbed the Green Bay Packers of a victory, and gave the Seattle Seahawks one, on the final play of the game. Watch the video through the link and judge for yourself, if you have not seen it. The NFL has tried to support this decision, but I doubt anybody but Seattle fans and their team are buying it.

Back in June, 2010, American League umpire Jim Joyce made a wrong call on the final out of a Indians – Tigers game that robbed Detroit pitcher Armando Galarraga of a perfect game. To be fair, Jim Joyce publicly apologized, but he should have pushed major league baseball to reverse the ruling given it had no external impact like game outcome or playoff race, or different outcome the way it was allowed to play out.

Both of these were potentially game ending rulings if done right. That is, what came after would not have mattered. There were no “what ifs” had the rulings been changed, like a mid-game ruling where there were lots to still play for and anything might still have happened.

So why can’t they be reversed and the correct results be placed in the record books?

There was no more game to play after the Packers interception. The game was over. Green Bay would have won, and that would have been that. Seattle had no chance to do anything to the contrary result. Easy conclusion on correcting a bad officiating decision. Yet, the NFL is choosing to live with the potentially tremendous consequences to the entire playoffs from this one result!

As for Armando Galarraga, the implications are a lot more personal, but it is rare enough it is worthy of a reversal. It is a perfect game! Rare enough as they are, it is rarer for individuals, still. And to do it at the highest level of play, that is an epic loss! The Indians didn’t come back to win the game for what got played out after, so you even got hindsight into the “what if the umpire got it wrong” scenario, that it didn’t affect the result of the game, only the statistics within.

So I ask again, give me a really good reason why game ending official rulings be reversed given there is no room for alternative outcomes after the correct decision would have been made?