From the Mouths of Refs

So while logging the day for this week's Couch Critic, I was lucky enough to catch the best referee gem since Week 8's "Delay of game, offense. Performing an unnatural act not common to the game in an attempt to get the offense to false-start," which prompted ESPN's Paul Maugire to remark, "That sounded a little obscene to me." Well, five Sundays later, on the same Gilette Stadium field, we have another contender for referee quote of the year, this one from Jeff Triplette. The play itself was crazy: Bollinger gets sacked, loses the ball, flags fly, Pats recover, Vrabel flips it to Mcginest, flags fly, McGinest tackled, flags fly. Big mess for Triplette to clean up. Here was his soliloquy, word for word:

"There are multiple fouls on this play. [Big smile] Prior to the... prior to the... uh... the change of possession, personal foul, face mask, number 93 of the defense. [Big pause, deep breath] After the change in possession, illegal forward pass, number 50 [pause, another smile] of New... of New England. [Pause] At the tackle, personal foul, face mask, 15, of the Jets. [Pause, trying not to laugh] By rule, all those penalties will offset, and we'll repeat 3rd down."

OK, maybe not as exciting as an "unnatural act," but that was certainly a mouthful. By the way, Kevin Harlan pointed out the Jets don't have a #15. Please don't tell Triplette. He might throw a flag in your eye.