For Pete's sake, look at the clock. 2 whole seconds. Even if we're incredibly generous and assume that it had just ticked from 1:05 to 1:04, and was milliseconds away from flipping over to 1:01, we're still talking a maximum of 4 seconds between the infraction and the flag hitting the ground.
How quickly should a flag be on the field after an infraction has occurred? 3 seconds, 2 seconds or less?
You can't even say where it was thrown from or when. It was thrown like a friggin lawn dart. Assuming we see the apex, the time from when it was thrown to when it hits the ground will be double the amount of time it's in the shot, which would mean it must have been thrown prior to it being apparent that there was a fumble. It's not like the ref is tethered above the field just out of the camera shot aiming a pneumatic t-shirt cannon with flag loaded. Dude's probably 20-30 yards away and he's only working with an arm as strong as Brad Johnson.
Of all the ridiculous referee claims I've seen, this has to rank pretty high up the list. People aren't even unhappy with a bad call. Seriously, upset because the ref doesn't have an arm like Randy Johnson that would allow him to fire that bean bag into the turf at 100 mph. Gimme a break.
