Has league-wide officiating gotten worse?

[BananaB]

Refs are terrible and the league don’t give a *****

[clayboy54]

The underlying issue is that there are WAY TOO MANY RULES. What's more is, they keep adding more rules.

 

I get that the climate today requires much greater emphasis on player safety, especially on head injuries. So, we'll add pages of variations on illegal hits to the head or defenseless player. Then, you add in the rules that promote more scoring, "because the fans want to see lots of scoring." Now, we add another stack of pages of  variations on illegal contact rules to limit the defense. Finally, we'll add the obligatory Tom Brady-inspired pages of rules to not allow touching the preferred star QB.

 

You also have an encyclopedia of existing rules, some that were written back in the early days of football and realistically don't even apply to today's game.

 

While we're at it, let's add some "points-of-emphasis" rules to spice up an almost impossible task of understanding the rule book.

 

Nobody could be expected to officiate the complete NFL rule book. Unfortunately, it is in the hands of officials to pick and choose rules to enforce on their own, based upon those that they do understand, and in the way they interpret them, individually.

 

No two officiating crews will interpret and enforce the same way. So, to the fans it appears that nobody knows what the heck they're doing. In fact, the individual crews know what they're doing on a given Sunday, but it certainly is not what the other crews are doing during the same time slot.

 

It's sad, really.

[blacklabel]

I’ve been saying it for years, refs are ruining the game. I get the sense the NFL wants the refs to have an impact in every game for some reason. I know it’s a difficult job but there are levels of subjectivity to it, unless you’re Carl “Chode” Cheffers who would throw a flag for a player farting if he could. 
 

It sucks all around and I truly feel the entire rules and officiating system needs a complete overhaul. 

[Matt_In_NH]

Unpopular opinion.  But I thinks it’s better but the job is way harder than people realize.  Expectations are way up.   Look at the 80s games on YouTube.   You will see ints called that were 100% not ints.  Same with fumbles and tds.   They get those right now.   They get catches right way more than a few years back when any little thing made a play not a catch.  
 

holding PI and other subjective calls are still inconsistent and are the reason for almost all criticism.   The pi replay replay tried was awful.   Might need to rethink that some way.
 

if you are looking for holding or pi or hands to the face on a scoring play you will likely find. It.  Do you really want all those called back?  
 

also bills fans like fans of any team can point to all the non calls that killed their team.   Yet they have little to say about non calls that would have gone against the bills.  My point is there is a big fanatical bias to ref criticism.   

Edited November 4, 2021 by mattynh

[Scott7975]

On 11/2/2021 at 2:08 PM, Rochesterfan said:

 

 

I think by far football is the most complicated and fastest moving - with the most moving parts

 

 

 

Perhaps if its so fast moving it would help to lower the average age of an NFL official... 51 years old.

[Scott7975]

On 11/2/2021 at 5:07 PM, SlimShady'sSpaceForce said:

I can honestly say I think the crew for Bills Miami was horrible 

 

 

Tua intentional grounding — not called 

 

JA intentional grounding — called 

 

The funny part about the JA one is the head referee called Josh down or in the grasp.  Later it was ruled IG.

[Rochesterfan]

1 hour ago, Scott7975 said:

 

Perhaps if its so fast moving it would help to lower the average age of an NFL official... 51 years old.

 

Perhaps, but college football with significantly younger officials is even worse.

 

I doubt it is their age as they seem to get to positions and run with these guys.

 

I think things happen so quickly and players react so quickly that it is easy to miss or call something slight on one occasion, but the next time let it go.

 

 

[dlonce]

With the advent of multiple camera angles, new absurd judgements penalty calls and rule changes, you will never find consistency from one crew to the next.

 

The solution? Let the players actually play football and only call blatant penalties. I notice the allowance of pass interference this year, while calling taunting and Ricky tacky holding on big plays.

[Not at the table Karlos]

On 11/2/2021 at 12:53 PM, LeGOATski said:

This is some sort of backwards thinking, though.

 

Don't fix what ain't workin?

Where did they say don't fix what's not working? They just said they've always been bad. 

[Thurman#1]

On 11/3/2021 at 1:17 AM, The Red King said:

 

So, my question is two-fold.  First, is it just me, or does officiating overall this season seem noticably worse across the entire league then prior seasons?

 

 

 

No, of course not.

 

It always cracks me up how people moan about this. Games are lost probably fifty times more often because of bad plays made by players than bad plays by refs.

Edited November 4, 2021 by Thurman#1

[MJS]

People have been complaining about officiating since the beginning of time.

 

No, I don't think it is worse. And honestly, fans are often very wrong about a lot of the calls or no calls that they complain about.

 

Yes, the officials miss things sometimes. Sometimes they make bad calls. Sometimes it is really bad. But most of the time it is fine.

[Scott7975]

5 hours ago, Rochesterfan said:

 

Perhaps, but college football with significantly younger officials is even worse.

 

I doubt it is their age as they seem to get to positions and run with these guys.

 

I think things happen so quickly and players react so quickly that it is easy to miss or call something slight on one occasion, but the next time let it go.

 

 

 

I realize it will never be perfect and some things will get missed.  Things like Groot helmet getting ripped off, false start, off sides... those things should never get missed.

 

On another note... I think any game changing type call should be reviewable.  I don't care if it adds a few minutes to the game.  If its a game changer... I want the crap right.

[Buffarukus]

you have to think that with this much technology and money available that the obvious mistakes are at this point purposeful. when the watching audience can see a zoomed in slow motion flag wrongfully called and yet there is no overturn, and the league has the same access. what other conclusion is there? i understand that many rules are subjective but to not have a system where obvious mistakes are not immediately corrected without threat of penalizing a team a time out for attempting is crazy. why is obvious stuff on coaches who have a hundred other things to worry about. challenges should be for close calls.

 

made a bad call. the entire world sees it was wrong. buzz in the earpiece. pick up the flag..done.

 

the fact we still have refs who do not automatically call ANY possible turnover, as a turnover, and let it play out. ALL TURNOVERS ARE REVIEWED! its a good signal that the system is either broken or corrupt.

 

not sure how people still bet any large sums of money in a sport that seems to not use whats available to elevate the integrity of its officiating.

 

 

Edited November 4, 2021 by Buffarukus

[LabattBlue]

I always thought the crying about the refs would go away when the Bills started winning.  I guess I was wrong. 

[Dukestreetking]

2 hours ago, MJS said:

People have been complaining about officiating since the beginning of time.

 

No doubt.

 

"But I chopped his head off waaay before he sliced my femoral artery" yelled the Gladiator to the Coliseum back judge.

[njbuff]

Problem is that there are too many rules to enforce.

 

It is almost impossible to play defense in today's day and age.

 

Just imagine if Ronnie Lott played in today's NFL, he would have been thrown out of the league by now. 

 

Just think about that, one of the greatest DB's of all time would be rendered almost obsolete in today's NFL because incompetent officials simply have TOO MANY rules to enforce.

[Buffarukus]

12 minutes ago, BTB said:

I always thought the crying about the refs would go away when the Bills started winning.  I guess I was wrong. 

 

you were wrong because "crying" about refs has nothing to do with a personal team to some. it has to do with the league having a consistent standard. if i see a penalty that helps or hurts the team that shouldn't have been called i think the same thing. its 2021 and we are still watching bad calls get upheld for no reason when there is so much out there that can easily fix it. 

 

the non calls is a different story that i dont see a way of changing.

[The Red King]

On 11/4/2021 at 6:56 AM, Thurman#1 said:

 

 

No, of course not.

 

It always cracks me up how people moan about this. Games are lost probably fifty times more often because of bad plays made by players than bad plays by refs.

 

Not arguing any of that, but they are two separate points.  I'm looking at league-wide officiating as a whole, and not moaning at all.  The officiating in the Miami game was horrific, but it was not the sole or main reason the game was close as long as it was.

 

But your post almost suggests bad officiating is fine, because in the end it's up to the teams to overcome bad officiating, and I'm not sure that was the point you were looking to make.