Well, that was fun while it lasted.

If you guys haven’t heard, the NFL has had some issues lately. Shocking, I know, but it’s true! Due to a contract dispute between the NFL and it’s actual officials, the NFL went in and hired replacement officials to run the games. And in case you haven’t heard, those officials were kind of bad at their jobs. So bad, in fact, that one of the hired hands was originally fired from the Lingerie Football league for “incompetence.” (That has an ED medication commercial written all over it.) Lost? What I’m trying to say is that these refs were pretty bad.

And you know what?

IT WAS AWESOME.

Let’s take a minute to put aside the fact that everybody takes the NFL way too seriously and anything bad that happens in the NFL is almost immediately a national crisis. Purely from an entertainment standpoint, the replacement referees were the best thing to happen since they casted Liam Neeson in “Taken” and “Taken 2.” And hopefully “Taken” 3, 4 and 5. These refs had the ability to take a very boring game and make it anything but. They single-handedly decided the outcome of, like, a bunch of games. Someone put them on the MVP ballot. Someone give them a slot in Fantasy Football. Someone call Michael Bay and have him make a movie about refs that are actually Transformers from the moon. Include Megan Fox.

Now I know how Ms. Johnson felt. Who is Ms. Johnson? Ms. Johnson was a substitute teacher I had in high school. Poor Ms. J would come to school, awake and enthusiastic, probably with some overzealous activity planned for the day, having not a single clue as to what she was walking into. The moment any class found out they had a substitute teacher was the moment said teacher immediately lost control. Chairs were turned around, phones were taken out-there was Prom drama (“Proma” as obnoxious soon-to-be-sorority girls called it) to be discussed. It wasn’t Ms. Johnson’s fault; that was just the way things were. When a substitute came in, nothing productive was going to happen that day.

That is exactly what happened in the NFL. The players saw Ms. Johnson and decided they didn’t care how they acted anymore.

Games were botched and calls were missed. The now infamous Packers-Seahawks game that took place two Monday nights ago sticks in most people’s minds as the lasting image of the replacement refs’ tenure in the big leagues. Some people (Packers fans) complain about the game, and I usually finish this sentence with “some people love the game,” but I don’t think the Seahawks have any fans. The fact of the matter is that watching these refs was the highlight of my Sunday. No one had any idea what was going on. It was like watching a freshman girl at a frat party. You just feel so bad for them, but it’s too entertaining to do anything about it. (Just kidding. I would do something.) (Actually, probably not.)

But now the regular guys are back. Now Jets fans can blame slightly more educated referees for losing 34-0 at home. But let us not forget how great the first three weeks of the NFL season were. Unless you were the replacement refs or their wives or their kids or their dog or anyone who knew them. They probably didn’t have a great time. But for everyone else, it was awesome. Those three weeks were for you, Ms. Johnson.