Here’s an ode to the guys who in just three short weeks we learned to hate.

They came from obscure college divisions, the lingerie league and, as many probably thought, Pop Warner or Midget football leagues.

They made us laugh, probably made some cry, but gave us something to talk about for the past three weeks other than politics.

They made those standing tall for unions stand even taller and those who despise unions stand tall for them.

They gave us new jokes, new Facebook memes, new reasons to complain about the poor performance of our teams.

They made us smug. They made even the casual fan think they could saunter on the field and call a game.

They seemingly threw flags whenever a player screamed interference and took abuse from players and coaches that locked out officials would never take although they always have.

They were flawed, star struck humans, commenting on having Player A or Player B on their fantasy team, posting pictures of their loyalty to Team A or Team B on their Facebook page and being totally uncool when all of us are not as cool as we think we are.

They took too long under the hood during reviews, didn’t place the ball fast enough during hurry-up offenses and were generally boobs.

Broadcasters made fun of their professions and we all made fun of them during one point of a game or another.

We loved to hate them, hated to admit when they were right and had fun making fun of them when I wonder if we had to do it would we do better or just as bad and I believe we would have done worse.

They were placed in an unenviable position and their legacy will be botched calls, bad decisions and too many timeouts.

The funny thing is, as we humans are fickle and forgetful, we will soon be back to our old ways and will continue blaming the regular officials like they were the replacements — Lance Martin