Jason Hatcher Accuses Officials of Making Bad Calls Against Washington Redskins Because of Their Nickname

" MUST WATCH- #Redskins Jason Hatcher on his frustration with refs & how it feels personal because of the team’s name pic.twitter.com/lswvyP5FW4 — Carol Maloney (@carolmaloney4) November 22, 2015 "

Jason Hatcher, Washington defensive lineman, will no doubt cause a stir with these statements.

"I don’t know if it’s about the name or what, but at the same time, we play football too. We work our butt off too. Don’t single us out. At the end of the day, it’s the name. Don’t worry about the name. We’re players and we work our butt off too. So, I’m just frustrated with it. I’m frustrated with it. We shouldn’t have to be punished for that. Every game, you know, just calls after calls should’ve been made in our favor but it goes to them. It’s just not right."

This quite frankly sounds like sour grapes by a player who’s team just got their butts whipped by over 30 points. Maybe it was frustration over this play that reversed a defensive touchdown for Washington in the first half. Former referee Mike Carey, now with CBS, did say that he began requesting not to work Washington Redskins games, and he never officiated one after week 1, 2006. “The league respectfully honored my request not to officiate Washington,” Carey said last year. But that’s how an official who has an issue should handle it if they don’t think they could be fair, or had a personal issue with something.

For the record, Carolina and Washington had virtually identical penalty yards in this game (66 vs 68), and for the season, Washington’s opponents have been penalized 73 times for 626 yards, while Washington has been penalized 65 times for 516 yards. But perhaps those opponents have just been very poorly behaved and deserved much, much more.