I love me some replacement officials.

While most of the nation was frothing at the mouth and red in the face with indignation following the debacle in Seattle on Monday Night Football, I was grinning from ear to ear.

That night was the greatest night of NFL entertainment — ever.

This was Dennis Green, Jim Mora, Herm Edwards and, well, everything crazy that has ever happened in the league rolled into one nutty night.

As far as the replacement officials go, as Green once famously said: “They were who we thought they were!”

But these guys certainly did not get off the hook.

This was bound to happen. I even wrote that in this space just last week: a call was going to get blown and it was going to cost a team a game.

That game was Monday night’s and that team was Green Bay.

Anyone with two eyes and a brain could tell Packers’ safety M.D. Jennings caught the ball for an interception. Seattle receiver Golden Tate was just along for the ride.

You don’t get a touchdown in the NFL if you catch the guy who catches the ball in the end zone.

Until Monday.

What happened after “The Call” was entertainment gold.

Twitter blew up. Even Jessica Alba had an opinion.

Seattle coach Pete Carroll did an on-the-field interview before the game was officially over. Green Bay players had to search through a bin for their helmets as if they were bobbing for apples so they could go back out onto the field and stand while the Seahawks booted a meaningless extra point.

ESPN broadcaster Jon Gruden was so dismayed by the blown call, he broke out his “Chucky Face.” (I can’t tell you how much I’ve missed Gruden’s “Chucky Face.”)

It looked like ESPN analyst Steve Young’s head was going to pop off. For a minute, I thought fellow analyst Trent Dilfer was going to start sobbing.

The only letdown was the Packers’ postgame interviews. No one punched a podium. No incoherent rants. But, hey, you can’t have everything.

I also knew the clock was about to strike midnight for these replacement refs.

For weeks, these guys have turned even the most routine of calls into must-see TV, whistling holding on kick returners, marking off random yardage on penalties and allowing players to go at each other with jabs and roundhouse rights to the domes ... with no flags thrown.

I was on the edge of my seat. What would happen next?

And now, the real refs will be back.

It may have taken a Bowflex for Ed Hochuli on the sideline of every NFL stadium to get the deal done, but it was made.

This amazing chapter in NFL history is now over. And I’m sad.

I guess the action on the field will have to be enough to entertain me.

Mike Kilroy is a staff writer for the Butler Eagle.