If replacement referees for the National Football League were on the ballot, the outcome of the election wouldn’t be close. Americans may suffer from some undecided thinking when it comes to electing a national leader, but they love their pro football.

Three weeks of an NFL season with most games marred by missed calls, bad calls and weird calls are enough. People are calling for an end to the deadlock with owners that has kept professional referees off the field.

Contempt for substitutes reached a peak Monday night when Green Bay was robbed of a victory in a 14-12 game with the Seattle Seahawks. You didn’t have to be a cheesehead to see the injustice that befell the Packers.

After letting Seattle beat Packer quarterback Aaron Rodgers like a rug in the first half, Green Bay adjusted its offense and dominated the field during the last two quarters of the game. It all came down to a Hail Mary fourth down stab at the end zone that brought the worst call in a game filled with them.

An amateur official turned an interception into a touchdown.

The call sparked a landslide of harsh comment.

Within moments of the ridiculous call, Twitter lit up. According to the Associated Press the Twitter traffic about the game reached 6,000 tweets per minute. The tweets included one from President Barack Obama who tweeted: “NFL fans on both sides of the aisle hope the refs’ lockout is settled soon.”

One week ago, Obama tweeted: “Is it just me or do we have to get our regular refs back?”

It isn’t just him.

Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan of Wisconsin shared his thoughts at an Ohio town hall meeting held Tuesday.

“You guys watch that Packer game last night?” Ryan said in Cincinnati. “I mean give me a break.”

Of course Ryan didn’t let his indignation over what happened to the faithful Packer fans wipe political opportunity from his mind.

“It’s time to get the real refs, and it reminds me of President Obama and the economy,” Ryan said, fishing for laughs. “If you can’t, if you can’t get it right, it’s time to get out.”

Ryan’s buddy, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker also threw in his two-cents about the outcome of Monday’s game at the hands of poor officiating and called for the NFL to bring back the real refs in a message on Twitter after the game.

It makes us wonder how Ryan and Walker would feel if they were watching teachers try to provide an education to children in larger classrooms with less state funding. Much like the battle between NFL owners and professional referees, Walker and other Republicans in the Badger State stepped in to reduce benefits to Wisconsin teachers last year.

NFL owners don’t want to continue funding a defined-benefit pension plan for the National Football League Referees Association because they say it will cost each team about $6,000 per game. Bear in mind that the NFL pulls in about $9 billion per year.

Sure the players get a nice chunk of change for providing the entertainment, but it’s the referees that keep the game honest — at least on the field.

The parallels between the NFL referee battle with ownership and the fight that modern labor unions have faced the past few years is obvious. A big sticking point with management is always bargaining rights followed by an assault on pension plans.

And although players and coaches are up in arms over the poor job done by scabs on the field, they are bound by their own bargained contracts that limit their ability to strike.

Mitt Romney has been silent on the NFL issue.

Maybe football is not his sport.