LITTLE ROCK, ARK. — NFL referee Walt Coleman called a Lions fumble Wednesday, Jan. 4 when he suddenly snapped awake due to a nightmare where he was falling from an airplane.
“Wally has been acting strange lately,” said Coleman’s wife. “Ever since that Lions-Packers game on New Year’s Day, he hasn’t been right.”
Coleman, the man who originally burst onto the controversy scene with the Tuck Rule call in 2002, has received much criticism for his crew’s performance during the Detroit and Green Bay season finale. Close friends, who asked to remain anonymous, said Coleman has been muttering “Incomplete pass” to himself ever since the conclusion of the week 17 game.
“When he called the tuck rule about 10 years ago, he had similar symptoms,” said his neighbor, Pat, adding that he is an Indianapolis fan, who has yet to forgive Coleman for “horrible calls in a 98 game where the Colts lost because of two bullshit penalties Coleman called on end zone interceptions.”
According to Coleman’s wife, the bad dream that resulted in ruling in favor of the Packers followed two nights that saw Coleman waking in the middle of the night several times and throwing a yellow flag.
“He keeps waking up, throwing a flag and saying things like ‘Pass interference — offense,’” she said.
She added she is concerned the bad calls on the Lions may have finally pushed Coleman over the brink of madness, but did want to compliment Lions’ fans on how they have reacted.
“I know they aren’t happy,” she said. “But it was worse 10 years ago, when shady-looking men dressed in outlandish black and silver costumes with their face painted drove by on motorcycles and stopped in front of our house to make a throat-slicing gesture.”
Sources who live near the Coleman residence said since the end of the Lions-Packers game, the Lions had coughed up four fumbles and accumulated 120 penalty yards.
Roger Gooddell could not be reached for comment. League officials said he is on vacation, where he spends his time training a group of men dressed in identical uniforms to march and raise their hands upward in a 45-degree angle in unison.
Originally posted Jan. 5, 2012
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