Football Refs: Temporary Blindness?

It's time for Super Bowl XL - bring on the commercials! That's the feeling of many football fans who believe their favorite team was robbed of a chance to be in this year's NFL Championships.

These dissatisfied supporters blame the officials for making bad calls and incorrectly assessing penalties.

Click here to learn why one sportswriter believes blind referees contributed to the worst NFL postseason ever.

Pity the poor referees. For each play they have to be properly positioned, alert, and posess total mastery of the NFL rules in order to make an accurate call:

= Was the receiver out of bounds?

= Are there too many players on the field?

= Which team retrieved that fumble?

Follow your instincts. Published reports claim NFL officials make the correct decision 97% of the time. That's before any coach screams for a challenge replay. The video replay will reverse a referee's call only if it unequivocally refutes the official's judgment. Oftentimes the use of 6 different camera angles still leaves the observer unsure what actually happened.

An alert mind and a precise memory play a role in processing what we see (versus what we think we see, or what we want to see). On a different playing field attorneys know that most witnesses to the same auto accident rarely agree on anything substantive other than the fact that two vehicles collided (or were there 3?)

So, enjoy your Super Sunday. Soon the chaotic pro football season will be over and sports fans can return to a more straightforward, clear cut form of athletic competition: Major League Baseball!