NFL Officiating

[JIMMYJAM4508]

We know last year was disgusting and they made some changes but This year is just as bad.

Can Roger Goodell address this?

Owners need to step up.

If I was the owner of Detroit Lions I would protest last nights game and NOT PLAY THIS WEEK. This may be the only way something will get done.

Are these officals being reviewed? I mean their calls and non calls.

The Best Fix and Goodell wont do it would be to immediately fire every official! & start the hiring of full time officials, get them trained new from the start now, and teach them as a group to be consistent from game to game then start working the preseason games, pay them all 100K after 2 years. Problem is Goodell who makes about 50 Million a year, doesnt want to pay 20 Million to the refs, so because of his greed, every fan and bettor has to deal with horrible officiating(And thats why he is boooed every time he introduces a player at the NFL draft).

These officials need to gather via video conference on monday & Tuesday as a group and review the film on all calls and work together so the calls get better each week, Instead they goto their mon to fri job....

In Hockey they let them play in the 3rd period and overtime.....In football they callled 6 stratight penalities on 6 plays of the Jets /Dallas game in the 4th qtr( That needs to be looked at and adddressed)

The crew from last nights game and the blind official who threw 2 flags on trey flowers for illegal use of hand to face need to be addressed and need to be investigated. They need to do Audits here and look for cash deposits and or aggressive spending( because the integrity of the game in now being questioned.

Just looking for some other opinions and facts if anyone knows what these officials are doing after the game.....

[rockman in pa]

And don't forget the mysterious call the official got in the KC-Houston game to give the interception to Texans and keep the game close early. No explanation; just
word from some one in power. The nfl has always had shady games. It's just now that they are more blatant and just don't care. But don't get me wrong I have learned to
live with it and just hope I pick the correct team that gets the "help".

And remember the reason for the nfl existence is to make money for the nfl. Just the the nba wants to sell all kinds of stuff to China.
If we don't like it we can lump.

[WJCJR]

The calls on Flowers last night were spectacularly awful, and the Sunday’s Seattle/Cleveland game is already mentioned as one of worst officiated games ever. The problem with refs isn’t salary or even their part-time status; the NFL just gave them a new big dollar contract. The problem is, as it’s has been: the idea that “experience” (AKA seniority) is the priority in crew organization and assignments, which the Ref union, not the NFL, decides. It’s a union of old, fat men who can’t keep up with the players on the field, let along the ever-changing rulebook; and, as long as “seniority” is the rule, incompetency and slovenly game calling will be the norm. Having missed their chance to demand meaningful changes this time around, the NFL and fans are stuck with what they have.

[eieio]

The one rule they brought in was about tackling that sucks the tacklers don't know what to do with their helmets anymore, what was okay before is now a penalty, it's hard enough to tackle a running receiver with out making sure you don't get a penalty for hitting him the wrong way.
eieio

[Ray]

Officiating is why I stopped paying any attention to the NBA the parade of fouls called just became unbearable and being able to use fouling to keep yourself in the game made things even worse so o haven’t paid attention to the NBA in 4 seasons and now the NFL is heading in that direction to be fair I think biggest problem are the rules so much if it doesn’t make any sense the refs are not blameless they completely ruin games it’s scaring me off from having enough come to really fire on these games, this last week I didn’t watch a single game for the first time in a while and if this crap doesn’t get corrected.

[JIMMYJAM4508]

Interesting feeback.....check this article out I belive this.......

https://brobible.com/sports/article/...screwed-lions/

[TARB]

The NFL is becoming just like the NBA; the games are unwatchable.

[Dukowski]

Yes, they have wrecked their product. I read an espn article a few years ago that stated that when the points of emphasis for that year are brought up, the refs are taught to throw the flag when it involves any kind of contact to the head/neck/shoulder area, EVEN if they in doubt that contact has actually been made. They are taught to err on the side of caution, so that is why you have the horrible plays like Flowers got. And that is why you have all the Pi calls, roughing the passer plays, etc.

I said it before but the Nfl has been a downward slope this last decade. I barely watch the games now and can’t see this sport lasting 20 more years. Baseball is the only sport I still enjoy watching.

[TARB]

I also prefer to watch NCAA basketball, especially Conference Tournament games and the NCAA Tournament games. The first and second round games in March are most preferred.

[WJCJR]

As bad as officiating has been lately, the chances are good that it always has been awful, if not even worse. Three things have changed, however, which have had an impact (ie. made it worse): the predisposition of the NFLRA to equate “seniority” with “expertise”; rule complication; and ever more precise instant replay.

1. Now, I’m an old time Lefty and a fan of unions since forever, but the NFLRA’s organization of ref crews and their game assignments has meant that the old and fat rule the day. It is not a meritocracy, where the smartest and most capable of keeping pace with every play are on the field – quite the opposite: you get the oldest and fattest – the least capable to do the job. Being old and fat myself, I’m telling you age and fitness matters; and whenever I see an aged, overweight official chasing down the sidelines - like a behemoth walrus chugging down a beach - trying to follow a downfield play, I have to laugh. This is the guy who the play-call depends on? The guy who will make the complex call of PI or OPI? The guy who can barely keep his head up spotting the ball accurately? Forget about it. It’s pure luck if he gets it right half the time, and don’t get me started on ball-spotting. “Seniority” should not be the automatic qualifier of competence, and has no place in crew organization and assignment.

2. The complication of NFL rules governing player safety has radically changed the game, and players, coaches and referees have yet to come to terms with that change. Nevermind all the nuances of legal versus illegal hits (a judgment most refs are simply incapable of making correctly, anyway), it’s clear to me that half of the refs on the field (along with most players and coaches) either don’t believe in the new rules, or call them only when the mood strikes them. This is something that will take a while for refs to get right, but as players and coaches finally learn to play like it’s not 1930, it won’t be much of an issue.

3. Just as instant replay has exposed NFL refs as the incompetent boobs they generally are, super-slow-mo instant replay has exposed them further – as incompetent boobs who insist on the rightness of being incompetent boobs. Two things need to happen before another pie-in-the-face embarrassment happens, like last year’s no-call of PI in the Saints/Rams conference championship game. First, coaches need more challenges and no NFLRA individual (past or present) can be involved in the play review. Bad calls need to be reversed, and the argument that the ref who made the call on the field – or his boss - is the best judge is flat-out stupid. Fans don’t need someone who is part of the problem involved in deciding whether there’s a problem or not; it’s like asking a receiver if he trapped the ball or caught it clean – or asking his coach. All changes need to be independently reviewed.

[JIMMYJAM4508]

Great info...your right on with number 3, there is a fix for this. Whats frustrating is we all know what the fix is as you stated in number 3, and Roger Goodell and the nfl competition committee cant figure it out....

Maybe Dave can get this information to them
?

[rockman in pa]

Great assessment! Something I actually agree with a Lefty. maybe there's hope for our country yet.

[JPdawg]

Man, WJCJR, in four simple paragraphs you have explained this problem better than anything I have ever read. My experience in dealing with Union Labor is that there is almost an innate requirement to push back on any and all changes to workplace rules and procedures, even when the changes clearly are intended to benefit the workforce (in this case to reverse the ever growing belief that all refs are incompetent).

As usual, the League office, tries to manage the P.R. of the problem instead of working to fix the problem. Hence we get the Grand Wizard Ref in some New York office making the decision after a challenge instead of someone in the stadiums making over-ruling decisions in real time. And think of how much better the flow of the game would be without having to "throw it to N.Y." There is no better way to kill in-game excitement and team momentum than to see the Zebra going under the hood.

Of course the whole challenge system is messed up as well. Making a coach decide which blown calls to challenge knowing that lost time outs and challenge limits are in play is stupid since most of these guys can't even manage basic substitutions and game clock decisions.

The way this league operates, I would expect the next steps will be to prevent In-stadium Replays and to put pressure on the networks to reduce their replays. Manage the outrage instead of fixing the problem.