Full Time Officials Coming to the NFL in 2017

[NoSaint]

 

 

I'm going to disagree. I don't believe that watching film for the vast majority of time they won't be officiating will lead to better officiating--because a lack of adequate film review isn't the problem.

 

The only way to improve officiating is to take away some officiating from the refs on the field and have more real time reviews by refs watching what we can see on TV.

 

The hiring of a few "full time" refs is a cynical response by the NFL that fans shouldn't fall for. It's another Rooney rule "solution".

Depends what you qualify as the problem and solution. If it's games are not called perfectly, there's no solution.

 

If the problem is "viewers aren't comfortable with Nfl officiating" I think there are ways this could make incremental improvements.

 

1) more time/focus not just reviewing video but the ins and outs of the rule book with less distractions from a second job SHOULD make lead officials at least a little better at their own knowledge base

 

2) the officials could give more time and attention to the NFL itself and working with the rules committee to make changes to the verbiage, processes etc...

 

3) the officials could spend more time with network partners and tv crews educating them on the rules - I think one of the frustrating things you see here on Sunday night or Monday morning is outrage over properly called plays where the tv crew give insufficient or inaccurate feedback to viewers. Improving this would instantly improve the fan experience and perception of the product.

 

4) they can spend some more time with teams going over rule changes, points of emphasis etc... to reduce the in season growing pains for teams adjusting to changes

 

5) they can spend more time together - could help consistency. Not a certainty but getting them in the same room more often might help them spend more time on those calls that are more art than science

 

There's a lot that could happen. Could be a flop that leads to issues too. But to act like it can't help seems silly

I have said before it did help in soccer. Didn't solve the problem totally but helped and they way it helped is it made it a career option for people. So rather than the refs who made the Premier League always being at the upper end of the age bracket because refereeing had been their second priority career it lowered the average age because younger guys pursued it as a primary career. That resulted in fitter officials, closer to incidents making on the whole better decisions.

 

I think it is a positive step and is certainly worth trying in the NFL.

An interesting perspective

 

 

And that is the soccer experience Kirby. Hasn't solved all issues with officials but the consensus is it has seen a marginal increase in the standard and consistency of decision making.

Right, and that's all that's reasonable. 11 guys running into 11 other guys with a ball flying around a big chunk of space is hard to regulate with 100% accuracy. Your looking for optimizing not perfecting

[Gugny]

I don't think anyone can realistically expect a perfectly officiated game.

 

I think there needs to be more of a focus placed upon penalties that directly impact each play.

 

Refs need to be able to anticipate where these infractions are most likely to happen.

 

For instance - in the MIN/DAL game - for the two point conversion at the end of the game, there was a solid 95% chance that MIN was passing. In that situation, the refs should be looking for holding, pass interference and roughing the passer. And they should be heavily keying in on those areas and only those areas.

 

The other thing I'd like to see is the determination that a ball is uncatchable. Throwing a PI flag on a ball that would not have been caught anyway ... that pisses me off every time.

 

And they need to stop throwing flags that are away from the play, unless they're some sort of unsportsmanlike infraction. Kick returns are a great example. How many flags are thrown for blocks in the back that occur on the other side of the field from where the ball is? A lot. Why???

 

I think officiating needs to become smarter and more practical.

[Dan]

This.

 

The rulebook now reads like the IRC with all the same level of complexity, exceptions to rules, exceptions to exceptions and so on.

 

If you have a thick book of highly complex rules governing the game, and a whole bunch of guys on the field looking for infractions, guess what? You're going to get a lot of penalties.

 

Simplify everything.

...

 

Simplification of the rule book certainly is a big part of it. The fact that no one can tell you what a catch is anymore is all you need to reference for that.

 

But, also, there's no consistency with the penalties? The "hit" on Bradford's head on thursday night, should not be a penalty (in my opinion). But because the rule is you can't touch the QBs head in any fashion, and they've called roughing the passer when a defender whispers too close to Brady, makes it an egregious over sight by the ref that likely cost the Vikings the game.

 

I think the overly complicated rules, allow for two things... Inconsistency in their enforcement and lack of focus for the refs. That is, the refs are so busy looking for all the various nuisanced penalties that they miss blatantly obvious things. Combine those two and it's hard not to think the league is fixing games. The only other conlusion is that the refs are patently incompetent. Maybe neither is true but when you watch a game and see wildly inconsistent, ticky tack flags, it's hard to draw any other conclusion.

 

So I say, simply the penalties and combine that with full time refs that can work on consistently applying the rules.

[Fadingpain]

Simplification of the rule book certainly is a big part of it. The fact that no one can tell you what a catch is anymore is all you need to reference for that.

 

But, also, there's no consistency with the penalties? The "hit" on Bradford's head on thursday night, should not be a penalty (in my opinion). But because the rule is you can't touch the QBs head in any fashion, and they've called roughing the passer when a defender whispers too close to Brady, makes it an egregious over sight by the ref that likely cost the Vikings the game.

 

I think the overly complicated rules, allow for two things... Inconsistency in their enforcement and lack of focus for the refs. That is, the refs are so busy looking for all the various nuisanced penalties that they miss blatantly obvious things. Combine those two and it's hard not to think the league is fixing games. The only other conlusion is that the refs are patently incompetent. Maybe neither is true but when you watch a game and see wildly inconsistent, ticky tack flags, it's hard to draw any other conclusion.

 

So I say, simply the penalties and combine that with full time refs that can work on consistently applying the rules.

Of course! The more complex and nuanced the rules, the more gray area. The more gray area, the more there is to look at, be distracted by, or miss. And as you say it leads to total inconsistency from play to play, game to game, and crew to crew.

 

One interesting aspect to all this that was mentioned up thread: with a dedicated full time officiating crew, it will become much easier to fix games through bribing a handful of individuals who arguably would have more reason to accept bribes.

 

The 58 year old judge who refs for fun on the weekends probably isn't looking for bribe money.

The full time "professional ref" who makes X per year would.

 

This sort of thing has happened in big time sporting leagues all over the world.

People are naive to think it can't happen in the NFL.

[Dan]

Of course! The more complex and nuanced the rules, the more gray area. The more gray area, the more there is to look at, be distracted by, or miss. And as you say it leads to total inconsistency from play to play, game to game, and crew to crew.

 

One interesting aspect to all this that was mentioned up thread: with a dedicated full time officiating crew, it will become much easier to fix games through bribing a handful of individuals who arguably would have more reason to accept bribes.

 

The 58 year old judge who refs for fun on the weekends probably isn't looking for bribe money.

 

The full time "professional ref" who makes X per year would.

 

This sort of thing has happened in big time sporting leagues all over the world.

 

People are naive to think it can't happen in the NFL.

 

Agreed. But one thing you can be sure of... Everyone always wants more money. So whether you have part time refs, with great full time careers, or full time refs with with lower overall salaries... They're susceptible to bribes. IMO, it's less about the quality of the salary they make and more about the quality of man they hire.

[Saxum]

Agreed. But one thing you can be sure of... Everyone always wants more money. So whether you have part time refs, with great full time careers, or full time refs with with lower overall salaries... They're susceptible to bribes. IMO, it's less about the quality of the salary they make and more about the quality of man they hire.

 

Same thing can be said about players throwing games especially when teams out of playoff contention and player already has a contract which is difficult to cut due to salary cap bonus acceleration or guaranteed contracts.