NFL officiating is broken. How do we fix it?

[Logic]

It seems like bad calls by NFL officials become a bigger story every year. Far too many big games are decided by awful calls and non-calls, and it's diminishing the product and alienating the fans.

In my estimation, the biggest problem is that the NFL absolutely refuses to have full time officials. For a sport this big, which makes this much money, and which sees so much money wagered on it by the betting public, to NOT have full time officials, seems inexcusable to me. 

There is also no real accountability for egregious mistakes, and there needs to be.

I think the Tweet below proposes some logical solutions, but I'd love to hear everyone else's opinions on it, because I'm sick to death of this god awful officiating week in and week out.

 

 

Edited November 8 by Logic

[Simon]

 

#1 - All officials start the game with three flags. If they have no flags at the end of the game, they don't get paid.

 

#2- Officials have proximity sensors that detect other officials. If they come within 10 feet of each other for more than 5 seconds, they get shocked.

 

#3- All stadiums have a replay room with multiple interactive screens. Every game will have one person in this room with a cooler of beer (in vino veritas) that can overturn scoring plays, turnovers, sideline calls and completions. If the person in the booth cannot find a reason to turn the play over before the ball is snapped for the next play, then the game goes on with no further interruptions. There will be no more nonsense about officials viewing hooded screens on sidelines or stopping the game at any time to pore over the minutia of a call. If it can't be decided in 30 seconds, the call on the field stands.

 

#4- All fans that whine about officiating will now be given a straw. So they can suck it the **** up.

[djp14150]

Have off field officials call penalties for things like blow to the head, facemask, or protest field calls for other ornalties making themsubject to review. The official who threw/ didnt threw the flag does not decide anything in review.

[Sojourner]

No need to get fancy, it’s very simple. 
 

Fines or dismissal after X amount of errors in a season. If they make an incorrect call, miss a blatant penalty or have an error that affects the game negatively. 
 

As much as it is a second job, it’s also a luxury for a lot of referees given most get some form of collectible memorabilia via the position. 

[BuffaloBillies]

OBVIOUSLY full-time refs. Well-paid who have NO OTHER JOBS but to work on their craft all year long.

Heavily trained and scrutinized all year long. Weekly meetings with league refs to go over the hundreds of plays and how best to call everything for consistency.

Strict review policies and weekly "grades". One week of a "C" or worse, you're on probation. Another "C" or worse week you're gone. 

 

[MJS]

I don't think it is getting worse, personally. I think it has been this way for a long time. I also think it isn't as bad as most are saying, but the bad calls are really frustrating when they happen.

 

Coaches need to be able to challenge calls and the review should be done by an independent 3rd party, not the officials who make the calls on the field.

[strive_for_five_guy]

Just seems to me if something is blatantly a foul on video, a flag should be able to come after the play.  They’re already using the “eye in the sky” system which I think is great, it’s generally quick and teams don’t have to waste a review.  Why can we all sit on our couches and see things on TV or video, yet a flag can’t be thrown after the fact in blatant cases?  Just dumb.

[Drew21PA]

I don’t get how much worse pro is from college 

 

are the college refs on payroll? 

[Ethan in Cleveland]

Game is too fast for humans to officiate. They do a very good job most of the time on possession, ball placement, and line to gain decisions. Sometimes tehy just can't see the ball being dropped like the INT that was reversed last night.

They need multiple officials looking at replay on every play to fix what they miss. The NFL and officials union needs to be open to the fact that mistakes are made and need to be corrected.  They refused to reverse PI calls. They need to realize you can't take away TD runs like Josh had on phantom holding calls. You can't let the RT jump Offside so bad they entire nation sees it and not go back and call it, and you can't let the QB get drilled in the facemask on the most important play of the game. When even Al Michaels can't take it anymore you know it is hopelessly broken. 

[Buffalo03]

It also doesn't help that they can't fine refs. But they can fine coaches and players for criticizing officiating. If referees have major blunders that sway games or costs teams games and it's one of those "we screwed up" things days later, the refs need to be fined. That's how I view it

[Buffalo_Stampede]

Been a problem for a long time, we just see everything now and wrong calls go viral instantly.

 

[NoSaint]

Fewer tv angles may actually make the game more enjoyable in this regard. 
 

im not sure officiating fell off a cliff so much as we can now hyper monitor every detail

 

room for improvement but maybe not as drastic as seems 

[Saxum]

13 minutes ago, Buffalo03 said:

It also doesn't help that they can't fine refs. But they can fine coaches and players for criticizing officiating. If referees have major blunders that sway games or costs teams games and it's one of those "we screwed up" things days later, the refs need to be fined. That's how I view it

 

Each coach and GM should have a pool of money to pay fines for criticizing officials - fines are already not much an impact to amount they are playing but this way team is paying for what it should - getting referees with mistakes recognized.  There used to be apology letters for mistakes but there do not seem to be anymore or the NFL league told them to stop telling people.  

[machine gun kelly]

24 minutes ago, Simon said:

 

#1 - All officials start the game with three flags. If they have no flags at the end of the game, they don't get paid.

 

#2- Officials have proximity sensors that detect other officials. If they come within 10 feet of each other for more than 5 seconds, they get shocked.

 

#3- All stadiums have a replay room with multiple interactive screens. Every game will have one person in this room with a cooler of beer (in vino veritas) that can overturn scoring plays, turnovers, sideline calls and completions. If the person in the booth cannot find a reason to turn the play over before the ball is snapped for the next play, then the game goes on with no further interruptions. There will be no more nonsense about officials viewing hooded screens on sidelines or stopping the game at any time to pore over the minutia of a call. If it can't be decided in 30 seconds, the call on the field stands.

 

#4- All fans that whine about officiating will now be given a straw. So they can suck it the **** up.

Good one Simon, especially the ECT (shock therapy) but seriously to the OP.  There’s nothing we can do about it.  They have an incredibly hard job and try to get it right.  We’re dealing with human beings at accelerated paces so almost impossible to catch everything.

 

I have a good friend in my industry is a veteran of the. I’ve and has reffed at the SEC and then the NFL for the last 25 years.  He does his best to get it right, and he doesn’t care about any player yelling at him either way.  He was a DT for the Bucs way over 320 and muscles back in the day.  Now he’s normal like most of us and just still athletic.  He just mentioned to me at the gym last weekend, he could care less what anyone says to him on the field.  He does his best to be impartial.

 

it always goes back to if you’re that miffed on penalties or lack of it, we’re not winning convincingly.

[PonyBoy]

For any Bills game we chose 10 members from this TBD to officiate.... from the comfort of their own home.

 

Necessities: 

1. DVR

2. Limited alcohol

3. Allowed to pause live game for pee or snack breaks

 

Am I missing any? 

[US Egg]

Here's the biggest obstacle:

On 10/18/2024 at 12:32 PM, strive_for_five_guy said:

I’m obsessed with the NFL and watch every game I can, even with things like poor officiating. So they've definitely got me on the hook.

Cheers to you strive. 🍻 

Edited November 8 by US Egg

[Kenosha2Buffalo]

I like what the UFL did.. every call is basically looked at via third party.. and they always get it right 

[DaVinci]

I will take the cynical approach and say the NFL does not want accurate officiating

[PromoTheRobot]

The XFL had the best system. They had Dean Blandino review everything. When something was missed or if a call was incorrect, they radioed the refs immediately. It didn't slow the game down and they rarely had bad calls. 

 

I need to see if there are any full XFL games on YouTube where you can see this in action. It's worth seeing it 

 

Another cool thing they did in the XFL was each team had one and challenge where you could ask for a review on anything.

 

https://search.app?link=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sportsbusinessjournal.com%2FJournal%2FIssues%2F2023%2F02%2F13%2FTechnology%2Fxfl-replay.aspx&utm_campaign=aga&utm_source=agsadl1%2Csh%2Fx%2Fgs%2Fm2%2F4

 

Edited November 8 by PromoTheRobot

[Nephilim17]

Open up the coaches' challenges to PI and holding calls. That will limit the amount of times call get looked, so not every play is being reviewed, at but it will make impactful calls open to review and reversal.