Written by Cody Benjamin at CBS Sports.com
Pete Morelli may or may not have a bias against the Philadelphia Eagles, but more than 60,000 people want to make sure he doesn’t officiate any more of the team’s games.
Nearly a week after Morelli helped call 10 penalties against the Eagles on “Thursday Night Football” during a game in which the host Carolina Panthers only drew one flag, an online Change.org petition to ban Morelli from future Philly matchups has collected more than 60,000 signatures.
Started by Will Philbrick of Little Rock, Arkansas, the petition says that “preventing Morelli from refereeing Eagles games will result in a more trustworthy and honest NFL” and “benefit the entire league and keep all claims of conspiracy to a normal level.”
Statistically speaking, the petition has some merit. Thursday night’s game, in which the Panthers were penalized 1 yard compared to the Eagles’ 120, marked the first time in NFL history that one team was docked 120 yards and the opposing team was penalized for less than 10, according to NBC Sports Philadelphia. Morelli’s last Eagles game before Thursday’s bout came in 2016, when Philadelphia traveled to play the Detroit Lions and was flagged 14 times in contrast to the Lions, who got two penalties.
In the last four Eagles games officiated by Morelli, who has been working as an NFL referee since 1999, Philadelphia has been penalized 40 times for 396 yards. The Eagles’ opponents in those games, meanwhile, have been flagged eight times for a total of 74 yards.
Maybe it’s Morelli. Maybe it’s the Eagles when Morelli is around. Either way, more than 60,000 fans don’t want the two sides together again.
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