NFL seems to displease fans with officiating. What ideas do fans have to improve it?

[Chaos]

 A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, NFL football cames did not have instant replay. And somehow the league functioned.  Mistakes were made, and people were annoyed, but they were accepted as part of the game. High School football is able to operate still without instant replay.  

 

In theory I like instant replay.  But I feel like in many games now I am watching an episode of CSI-NFL as plays are disected frame by frame, Gene Steradore is brought in to give his opinion and even then, there are a fair number of plays were people simply disagree on the meaning of what they are seeing. 

 

My observation is the most controversial aspect of officiating is not the penalties that are called, its the penalties that are missed.  For example, the hold at the end of the Super Bowl that resulted in the Chiefs being able to run out the clock was clearly a hold by the rules. But fans instantly railed against the inconsistency of applying that rule, point out how many times during the game more aggregiouos penalties had been missed. This leads to my first suggestion: 

 

1. There needs to be the ability for teams to call for instant replay for a missed penalty.  Initially this will painfully slow games because so many holds in current games are missed but eventually players will adapt.  If they know that they will always get called for holds, they will stop holding, or be replaced by players that can play without holding. 

 

The next thing I dislike about instant replay is that it adds a gameship element to Football that does not belong. Teams running up to the line to beat the review, home teams showing 10 angles of some plays on thier big screen, while not showing any replays of some other ones, or befuffled coaches not know whether to risk a time out or not being put under the gun.  I would rather the outcomes of games be decided between the lines. The leads to my second suggestion.

 

      2.  Refs should have the ability to rule "could not determine" on a play.  One element of the frustration with instant replay is it requires over turning a mistake. In many instances, it seems clear (particularly with regards to whether a ball was caught or not) where the ref just did not have a good view of the call.  Let them throw a blue flag, asking for a review, to get the call right in the first place, rather than force the coach who to decide if the ref's guess was right or wrong.  This allows the standard to be changed from "overruling with incontrovertible evidence" to "lets just make the right call".  Good refs should have to throw this hypthetical blue flag only a couple of times a season. It should not be some sort of crutch.  But this means only 1 call is made on the play rather than two calls on reversals. 

 

I think both of the changes would remove much of the frustration with NFL officiating.  It seems as though it has to be better than the current system of expecting refs to be "consistenly wrong" and "guessing" when they don't have the proper angle. 

 

Edited February 14, 2023 by Chaos

[Dancing Fool]

Personally I have stopped investing emotionally in games that seem to be influenced by Las Vegas. This seems WAY more productive than looking for solutions for something that the NFL does not seem to view as a problem.

 

Has the NFL indicated that they wish to change anything about how refs function? If they have not then I will presume that officiating is working as it is intended to.

Edited February 14, 2023 by Dancing Fool

[zow2]

Any holding that is offensive or defensive that is far away from the actual play.  I'm talking like the other side of the field, should be ignored.  That includes special teams.  If a flag is thrown, the refs should pick it up.

Edited February 14, 2023 by zow2

[papazoid]

#1- full time refs, year round training

 

speeding up the review process should be #2

 

both very doable 

[DaBillsFanSince1973]

[Lost]

Allow the teams 1 penalty challenge per half.   If the ref gets the call wrong he's ejected.

[PetermansRedemption]

Same solution I’ve been peddling for years.

1. Everything is challengeable and coaches only get two the entire game. No getting a third if you win two, just two total. 

2. Plays are reviewed in real time. If it isn’t obvious in real time, it isn’t obvious. 
3. There is a “shot clock” of 2-3 minutes. If there isn’t a reversal by then, the call on the field stands. 

Edited February 14, 2023 by PetermansRedemption

[Dr. Who]

9 minutes ago, Lost said:

Allow the teams 1 penalty challenge per half.   If the ref gets the call wrong he's ejected.

You'd have to have a pool of spare refs for every game. The idea of accountability for bad calls is supposedly part of the review process, but skepticism is in order.

[May Day 10]

11 minutes ago, PetermansRedemption said:

Same solution I’ve been peddling for years.

1. Everything is challengeable and coaches only get two the entire game. No getting a third if you win two, just two total. 

2. Plays are reviewed in real time. If it isn’t obvious in real time, it isn’t obvious. 
3. There is a “shot clock” of 2-3 minutes. If there isn’t a reversal by then, the call on the field stands. 

 

Some version of this would be fine IMO.

 

 

Its an unpopular take, but I think NFL games are very well officiated.  Its an impossible job and these guys do it as well as humanly possible.  Mistakes happen, its the human element and part of sports.

[What a Tuel]

The biggest problem isnt that they called the holding. They called it right. The problem is that they didn't call probably 20 other holdings of the same nature earlier in the game. They magnify big moments through inconsistency which makes fans unhappy.

Edited February 14, 2023 by What a Tuel

[Uncle Buck]

Simplify the rule book - Formation penalties, etc are a waste of time. Intentional grounding is obvious, who cars about the tackle box and whether the ball got to the line of scrimmage. There are countless other technical penalties that could be eliminated to focus on the stuff that really changes games. 

[Bleeding Bills Blue]

18 minutes ago, What a Tuel said:

The biggest problem isnt that they called the holding. They called it right. The problem is that they didn't call probably 20 other holdings of the same nature earlier in the game. They magnify big moments through inconsistency which makes fans unhappy.

 

I didn't appreciate which ref threw it. i felt he had the worst view of it.... someone in his ear perhaps?!!! Conspiracy! 

[K D]

Prison rules. If there's no blood then there's no foul

[SinceThe70s]

40 minutes ago, PetermansRedemption said:

Same solution I’ve been peddling for years.

1. Everything is challengeable and coaches only get two the entire game. No getting a third if you win two, just two total. 

2. Plays are reviewed in real time. If it isn’t obvious in real time, it isn’t obvious. 
3. There is a “shot clock” of 2-3 minutes. If there isn’t a reversal by then, the call on the field stands. 

 

I think #2 would be the best next step. There are always going to be plays where two people view the same play differently. In the end we take time out from game play to do a Zapruder-like investigation that as often than not many think they got it wrong.. View the replay in real-time and if it's not obvious, let the call on the field stand and move on. 

[RalphWilson'sNewWar]

Maybe watching for it more this season… but I just happened to notice more make up calls in the NFL this season in more games that I may have ever notice before in the past.

 

Evers since the Raiders/Chiefs night game when Kansas got robbed on the QB Hit and refs turned around and had to fix their mistakes.

 

I don’t know how I feel about that honestly because if a ref screws yiu in the first quarter, and it leads to the game goong in one direction, maybe the refs should give you a make up call later in the game to balance things out.

[BillsFanNC]

The NFL has no motivation or need to fix any of this until the public stops consuming their product en masse.

 

Since that isn't going happen its just going to be wash, rinse, repeat.

[Simon]

Three easy steps:

 

1) Every official starts the game with three flags in his pocket. If you run out of flags, you are done for the day. If you run out of flags two weeks in a row, you don't get paid. If you run out of flags three weeks in a row, you are done for the year.

 

2) Every official wears a proximity sensor with a mild shock device wired into their skivvies. If you come within 10 feet of two other officials simultaneously during a dead ball, you get shocked.

 

3) All coaches challenges are removed. The replay system consists of one neutral fan upstairs in a room with a cooler full of beer and 8 large monitors with quick replay capability of all camera angles in the stadium. This person has until the ball is snapped on the next down to decide whether to overturn a call on the previous play. If they cannot find a camera angle clearly showing the need for a reversal in that time frame, play moves on. If they do see an obvious need for a reversal, they buzz down to the head ref to stop the play and clarify the call. NOT to have the ref go squint into a single tiny hooded monitor for 5 minutes to decide, but to tell them where the ball is, what the down and distance are and what the clock says, at which time the play clock is rest and play moves on.

 

Fast, efficient and minimizes officiating impact on the game

 

 

[Marcus Aurelius]

Start watching the WNBA?

[HOUSE]

We need more honest players, if you f***  up...... just admit it.

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

10 minutes ago, HOUSE said:

We need more honest players, if you f***  up...... just admit it.

"First, we get the honest guy...then, we get HOUSE!"