Jordan Love and Wife Dress as Blind NFL Refs for Halloween, Bump Into Each Other and Throw Flags at Nothing — Still Cleaner Than Week 7

Halloween is supposed to be the one night Americans dress as something they are not. Jordan Love and Ronika Stone Love dressed as something the league already employs: blind NFL referees with penalty flags and a sense of direction that needs a white cane.

The Packers quarterback and his wife appeared in a TikTok posted by Ronika wearing black-and-white striped referee tops, dark sunglasses and white mobility canes. In the clip they walked aimlessly, bumped into each other, fell and threw yellow flags at the empty air, which is still more process than some crews bring to a fourth quarter. Ronika captioned it, "I'm jokin, immmmmm jokin." The spelling alone deserved a first down.

Fans laughed. Fans also panicked, which is the modern Packers emotional range. Several worried Love would be fined for the costume. Ronika joked in the comments that they were "Footlocker employees." Brilliant. If the NFL asks, it was retail. If Footlocker asks, it was football. Nobody asks a zebra shirt for a receipt.

Context arrived wearing its own stripes. Through eight weeks the Packers have accepted 71 penalties, second-most in the NFL, and a league-leading 591 penalty yards. That is not a season. That is a subscription. After Green Bay's 20-17 loss to the Detroit Lions in Week 7, safety Xavier McKinney said what half of Wisconsin was already yelling at the television: "I don't know how the NFL's going to treat it, but I'm not a big fan of the refs right now. I don't think it's great officiating, if I'm being completely honest." The league treated it the traditional way. It fined him $25,000. Honesty, it turns out, has a price tag and no appeal.

Love has been the most-hit quarterback in the NFL through eight weeks and has received zero roughing-the-passer flags in his favor. Zero. He leads the league with 2,246 passing yards and has 16 touchdowns, producing at an MVP pace while wearing every defensive end like a winter coat. The flags find everyone else. The hits find him.

The Packers are 5-3 and last in the NFC North, a sentence that should not be legal in Wisconsin. They visit the Patriots on Nov. 8, either a football game or an audition for whoever draws the stripes that week. After a Halloween spent practicing blindness, Love at least knows the choreography.

The flags were not thrown at a villain. They were thrown at the void, and the void, for once, was flagged correctly. Ronika said they were joking. McKinney said he was being honest. The league preferred the fine. Love preferred the cane.

Costume stores sell pirates, vampires and sexy cats. Green Bay invented a new aisle: official who cannot see the quarterback getting folded like laundry. Couples usually coordinate as peanut butter and jelly. These two coordinated as the whistle and the mistake. Next year somebody will dress as a $25,000 fine. It will still photograph better than Week 7.

Love can still lead the league in yards. He can still take every hit. He can still walk into New England with a white cane and a yellow flag. If the officials ask what he is wearing, he can say Footlocker. If they ask what he is throwing, he can say nothing in particular. That, historically, has been enough.