The NFL suspended two on-field officials on Monday, the first time it has done that in eight years. Line judge Jeff Seeman got two games for swearing at Arizona Cardinals tight end Trey McBride late in Sunday's 36-24 loss to the Giants. Referee Adrian Hill got one game for yelling at Minnesota Vikings linebacker Eric Wilson after a Dolphins player blocked Wilson into the referee and knocked Hill down. NFL vice president of officiating Ramon George issued both. On Tuesday, the NFL Referees Association said the punishments were "excessive and inconsistent with past precedent" and that it would challenge them. Neither official will work this Sunday's games.

The League Had To Hold Officials To A Higher Bar

Pundits and the players' union say officials who curse at players should pay for it.

Officials are supposed to be the calm ones. Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio wrote Tuesday that "the league had no choice." Officials are "the judges in the courtroom that is a football field," he wrote, and "how can anyone expect the players and coaches to restrict their behavior if the officials can't, or won't?" He pointed to the NFL's crackdown on player taunting and said that standard "should apply to officials — and it should be an even higher bar."

Players get punished for this, so officials should be too. NFL Players Association executive director JC Tretter made that case Sunday: "Players are consistently held accountable when the roles are reversed. We expect the NFL to hold officials to the same standard." CBS sideline reporter Aditi Kinkhabwala was standing there and never heard McBride swear back. "The harshest he got was, 'You're ruining the game,'" she wrote on X.

It was a national TV punchline by Monday night. Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning mocked the officials on Monday's ManningCast while discussing a fumble: "We got refs telling players to eff off. Let's just get the fumble right."

But Two Games Is Out Of Line With Past Bans

The referees' union says officials messed up but got a harsher punishment than the past allows.

The officials were wrong, but the punishment is too big. NFL Referees Association executive director Scott Green conceded that both men's actions "fell short" of the professional standard. "Accountability matters, but that should not result in discipline that is excessive or inconsistent with established precedent," he said. The union will challenge the suspensions with the league's officiating department.

Recent bans were shorter than Seeman's. His two-game ban is the longest for an official since 1988, CBS Sports reported. Officials suspended before for run-ins with players each sat one game. Umpire Roy Ellison got one game in 2013 for a profane, derogatory remark to Washington tackle Trent Williams.

Officials take abuse too. Green said officials face "highly charged interactions and, at times, verbal abuse from players and coaches." Punishing officials "while ignoring or minimizing the conduct directed at them is neither fair nor an effective way to address this issue," he said. The union also plans to meet with players' union leaders about rising confrontations on the field.

Hill's Case Never Belonged Next To Seeman's

The Vikings call it a high-energy moment that Hill and the player had already settled.

The player Hill yelled at has already moved on. Wilson said after the game, "I ended up apologizing to him and explained the situation," and that Hill "was cool about it." He said Hill told him he was only trying to keep Wilson and the Dolphins player from fighting.

It was a reaction in the heat of the moment. Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell called it "one of those situations in kind of a high-energy moment" on Monday. "I don't have any major concerns, and I think Adrian's a really good official and does a really good job," he said.

Even a supporter of the bans thinks Hill got lumped in. Florio, who backed both bans, wrote that "Hill may not have been suspended without the Jeff Seeman incident." Hill "reacted to a misimpression of the situation" after getting knocked down, Florio wrote. He also noted that the players' union said nothing about the Hill exchange.

Where This Lands

Florio says officials have to meet a higher bar than the players they flag. The players' union wants them held to the same standard, and a reporter who was standing right there never heard McBride swear back. The referees' union admits both officials fell short. It says two games breaks with past precedent and ignores the abuse officials take. Wilson says he and Hill settled it themselves. O'Connell calls it a high-energy moment. Even Florio suspects the Seeman incident swept Hill up. The league now has the union's challenge. It declined to comment Tuesday and hasn't publicly responded since.

Sources