They used to teach refs to throw flags at the spot of the penalty. For whatever reason that same year Orlando Brown got tagged, a few kids in high-school had that happen to them too (I was present for one), and the NCAA and NFL refs changed policies to toss flags up instead of at the point of the foul.

What really sucks about this is that the call for IR is either on the other side of the field, or this referee is too slow to be doing his job. Either way, there's absolutely no need to put a foreign object into the field of play like that, and I do know that regulars wouldn't be making this kind of mistake.

The biggest difference isn't that refs are making mistakes... it's the kind of mistakes these guys make. They spot the ball poorly because they can't get into position to see where guys are truly down, and aren't used to the speed of skill players and the shit they pull to draw cheap flags.