Ryan Braun commiserates with Rodgers

RyanBraun
Cincinnati - Brewers leftfielder Ryan Braun, as might be expected, talked to close friend Aaron Rodgers via telephone on Tuesday about the controversial ending to the Packers' game Monday night in Seattle.

Braun said he felt particularly bad because one game means so much more in an NFL season than in major league baseball, when you play 162 games.

"It's the equivalent of 10 games for us because it's a 16-game season. One game for them is like the difference in us going 10-0 or 0-10," said Braun. "It means so much more. When you think about that, it doesn't seem fair. It doesn't feel right. Everybody was mad, angry, disgusted.

"We all watched the game. We saw the same thing everybody else saw. Everybody knows what happened."

Braun said he was "not going to get into a personal conversation" with Rodgers but made it clear that the quarterback was frustrated both with the final controversial TD call as well as the Packers playing poorly enough to be in that situation.

"He felt like they shouldn't have put themselves in that position," said Braun. "He wished they had played better. But they'll be all right."

Of the entire spectacle after the game, as well as the NFL's use of replacement refs, Braun said, "It was an embarrassing scene. You want the guys who are most qualified out there with a game on the line.

"This is our livelihood, this is our profession. We take a tremendous amount of pride in what we do, and you want the people who have the best chance of getting the calls right to be making the calls. It makes me appreciate we don’t have to deal with replacement umpires at this level, because I can only imagine how frustrating it would be.

"You know they're going to do their best to make the right calls. I'm just glad we've never had to deal with replacement umpires. I can appreciate (the NFL players') frustration. Ultimately, as a player, we just hope they get the call right. It's all we've talked about today."

Brewers manager Ron Roenicke, who has met Packers coach Mike McCarthy, said he empathized with having to accept that kind of loss.

"If you look at the replay, I don't get it," said Roenicke. "That's one thing. When we look at replays here (on border calls), they never get it wrong (after reviewing it). I haven't seen one play that they got wrong after they went in and looked at it. So, come on. Once they go in and look at the replay, they always come back with the right call. Every single time. So, how do you go and look at the replay and come back with that?"


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(jsonline.com)
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