Detroit Lions fans at Ford Field loudly boo referees — twice — before Vikings game

Last week, the NFL referees had their say in the Detroit Lions’ 23-22 loss at Green Bay.

On Sunday, Lions fans had their say. Twice. And they weren’t subtle.

Fans at Ford Field loudly booed the referee crew — which was different from last week’s crew that called three controversial penalties against the Lions late in the Packers game — during pregame activities and again for the coin toss for the game against the Minnesota Vikings.

Lions defensive end Trey Flowers admitted the team wanted to “get this bad taste out of our mouth” from a tough and controversial loss in which he was called for illegal use of hands twice in the fourth quarter.

Flowers said he didn’t accept as a form of apology NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent admitting the second illegal-use-of-hands penalty was a mistake.

Safety Tracy Walker was penalized for a third-quarter helmet-to-helmet hit on receiver Geronimo Allison. He said it was an “awful call” after the game and that he didn’t care if he was fined by the league for criticizing the officials. Indeed, the NFL slapped him with a $12,500 fine.

Contact Carlos Monarrez at cmonarrez@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @cmonarrez.