“And I say this as a Bears fan, who obviously is never heartbroken when the Packers lose, but it’s not just this game,” Obama said. “We’ve seen that over the last several months. We need to go ahead and get this resolved and I think that is a bipartisan position.” …

The NFL this season locked out its regular referees amid a contract dispute and has been using replacement refs. That has led to a slew of complaints about botched calls, but none has been more blatant and controversial than the one that ended the Monday Night Football game between the Packers and Seahawks. …

“They’ve been put in a tough situation,” the president said. “But the fact is this is a fast, tough game to control. And it doesn’t make sense to me for a league that’s been so successful not to want to put their very best out there.”