Clete Blakeman’s crew officiated a game that could have easily become uncontrollable at any moment. It didn’t help that they were shorthanded.

Umpire Garth DeFelice left the game midway through the first quarter with a foot injury. That required the crew to readjust their mechanics to officiate most of the game shorthanded. Side judge Greg Meyer moved into the umpire position, leaving only two deep officials.

The game (highlight video) had six personal foul penalties, including the following:

• Lions receiver Titus Young was involved in a post-play push near the goal line (video)
• Lions tight end Brandon Pettigrew contacted line judge Jeff Seeman (video)

Seeman, under the circumstances, could have called for Pettigrew’s ejection. Impermissible contact with an official is not, despite widespread opinion, an automatic ejection, and it took tremendous restraint not to disqualify Pettigrew. In the analysis, Pettigrew was still reacting to the play when Seeman was hit. While it was still a penalty, the officials realized that the contact was not directed at Seeman. It also appears that Pettigrew apologized right away, to help save his place in the game.

While there was a lot of dead-ball action that had to be controlled, the crew made certain that they maintained their composure throughout.

Niners defensive tackle Justin Smith was ejected from the Thursday night 49ers-Chargers game for impermissible contact with an official (video).

Umpire Garth DeFelice was attempting to break up some post-play shoving when Smith pushed DeFelice’s arm off of him. Whether or not Smith knew it was an official who he shoved back on is irrelevant; it is impermissible contact with the referee. There will likely be a fine of $10,000 coming Smith’s way this week.

DeFelice is obviously a tough guy, as he has been widely recognized for his forearm to Rams running back Kenneth Darby (video below). But you can see for a fraction of a second DeFelice loses his cool, with line judge Jeff Seeman making sure that DeFelice doesn’t do more than throw a flag on the play.

Clete Blakeman was the crew chief for the game.

The league has zero tolerance for deliberate contact with the officials as Ravens coach John Harbaugh was fined $15,000 by the NFL. While fines are usually late-week business, the league levied this fine on Tuesday, underscoring the zero-tolerance nature of “impermissible verbal and physical contact with an official”. Harbuagh was arguing a fourth-quarter roughing-the-passer call when he made contact with line judge Ron Marinucci in the chest. (Sorry, no video available.) Harbaugh explained the contact in a Monday news conference prior to being fined:

I was a little animated in describing the strike zone, and I think he understood the emotions of it. I’ll make sure that I let him know that I think I was over the line in my animation without question, and that’s never something you want to do. And the point is we had great conversations with those guys throughout the game. We disagreed and it was animated, but it was respectful throughout. And I know Ron understood that it was respectful, so it should be OK.

Harbaugh was not penalized during the game for his actions. The fact that this came up in a Monday press conference, prior to any announcement of a fine from the league office, shows that Harbaugh’s actions were at least questionable, which historically has been used as a determining factor for a fine.

(Updated 9/26: Apparently, the fine was handed out on Tuesday, not Monday, which make Harbaugh’s comments from his press conference prior to the fine.)

The most violent collision from the 2009 season didn’t even involve the umpire, but a back judge covering a kickoff return. Rich Reels was bruised up quite a bit and had to sit a week out when he was caught off balance and hit by an upfield blocker. In addition to Reels’ injury, there were reports of concussions and other injuries. The league even considered giving the umpire a helmet.

The umpire position will be opposite the referee in the offensive backfield.

The umpire will now be located in the offensive backfield, rather than the center of the defensive backfield. The umpire will operate on the side opposite the referee, who is generally positioned on the side of the quarterback’s throwing arm. However, after the two minute warning in either half, the umpire will return to the defensive backfield.

There are no changes indicated in the 2010 NFL rule book under the umpire’s duties as a result of this change. (Oddly, the position of the umpire is not and never was discussed in the rule book, despite other officials’ positions being indicated.) However, there is a private manual for officials that express finer details of officiating mechanics which was overhauled.

The umpire will have to quickly set in position after maintaining the ball spot at the line of scrimmage. Once an offense comes to the line, the umpire must retreat to the offensive backfield (while avoiding the players moving from the huddle to the line of scrimmage) rather than a few yards behind the ball. Usually, the offense has to wait about a second for the umpire to be set, but it will likely take longer with the new positioning.

It will be interesting to see some of the bugs worked out in the preseason, and we will update you on any refinements as we are aware of them.

The original image used in the illustration is credited to Pats1 at en.wikipedia.

McCabe’s nose was detached with most of his facial bones broken. His alleged assailant, Leon Woods, is in prison on $10,000 bail, charged today with first-degree assault.

Peter McCabe, a referee of a football game in Rochester, N.Y., is tended to after being allegedly struck in the face by a player swinging a helmet.

A witness, in a deposition released by police, claimed that he “heard a hard crack” while another said that he “saw the player swing his helmet over his head and hit McCabe in the face with [the] helmet.” Another official told a local TV station that the player was yelling, “Take that! Take that!”

The commissioner of the NAFL, Robin Williams, contacted the Zebra Blog on our request for comment. She expressed that the league is “deeply saddened by the event and wishes the injured referee a speedy and full recovery.”

“We’ve been managing a quality organization for the past 11 years and have never seen an incident like this before.”

We questioned whether the league conducted, or teams were required to conduct, background checks on their players. Williams stated, “In terms of background checks, the NAFL has a relationship with several other leagues, where we cross ban players and owners from joining our league, or vice versa, if that member had been banned by either organization. Because we do encourage mentoring, leadership and getting at-risk youth and adults off the street, we do not have a policy [of] banning players with former criminal or misdemeanor record.”

The Cougars applied for admission to the NAFL in 2009 but have yet to pay the league dues. Rather than canceling games, the NAFL permitted its teams to play the Cougars this year to help defray their costs.

McCabe is home right now, but scheduled to return to the hospital for more reconstructive surgery on Friday. In the meantime, the 25-year veteran official indicated that Saturday’s game will be his last.

Update, 10/29/09: A representative from the Cougars replied to our e-mail, stating that the team intends to issue a press release, but otherwise did not comment on the allegations or answer our questions.

The photo on this post was taken by another referee and is credited to 98.9 The Buzz in Rochester.

No video to show, but the Associated Press reported that Cardinals offensive lineman Elton Brown bumped referee Mike Carey near the end of the first half of the final preseason game. He was ejected for the contact.

According to the story and his coach, the bump was inadvertant, however the ruling is not debatable. The league office should report any sanctions against Brown this week.

Update, Wed. 9/9/09: In an unrelated move, Brown was released by the Cardinals today.