One football game produces more than enough blame

There is no excuse for the hooliganism that followed a bad call at the Cleveland Browns-Jacksonville Jaguars game Sunday, but there is also no excuse for the call.
The scene at Cleveland Browns Stadium was ugly, and it deserved more condemnation than it initially got from Browns owner Al Lerner and team president Carmen Policy.
After sleeping on it, Policy did the right thing Monday. He condemned the fans who threw bottles and other objects on the field and at referees, players and security personnel. He said the Browns will do an investigation, opening the possibility that additional fans may face criminal charges or that season ticket holders may lose their seats.
NFL's turn: Now let's see if the National Football League does the right thing. This is not the first game in which officials have made egregious errors that could have or did cost a team a game. And yet, the NFL never publicly fines or disciplines officials. Why not? Players are fined for misconduct all the time. In the interest of fairness, referees who make horrendous calls -- especially game-ending or season-ending calls -- should be punished.
This incident qualifies. Until Sunday, every fan knew that a play isn't subject to instant replay analysis once the succeeding play has been run. One of two things happened. Either the replay official did not signal the referee before the Browns got off their play, or the referee did not react to the signal in timely fashion.
In either case, the officials blew the call and they should have acknowledged it. The play was not whistled dead. It should have stood, and the preceding play should have stood. Cleveland should have had second down and 58 seconds in which to score if they could.
Owners, coaches and players are all held to account; only the officials are immune. The NFL would be doing itself a favor if it took this opportunity to demonstrate that bad officiating will not be tolerated.
Let them talk: It should also lift its gag rule that absolutely prohibits owners, coaches and players from criticizing officials. Sometimes officiating is so bad it deserves condemnation. Patently unfair or abusive criticism could be addressed by the league.
In the meantime, that minority of fans who allowed their emotions to get the better of them Sunday have the off-season to think about their good fortune. They are lucky that none of those projectiles -- there were reports of portable radios being thrown -- seriously injured or even killed an official, player, coach, security guard, fan or child.
The sting of Sunday's 15-10 defeat and the way the game ended will fade; the guilt had someone been disabled or killed would never go away.