NFL officiating is broken. How do we fix it?

[Bleeding Bills Blue]

22 hours ago, LabattBlue said:

One thing that needs to go away is the monitor on the sideline.  Replay central should have a 72” tv.  Why do you need a ref with a 19” on the sideline? Just another way to speed things up.  

 

Or at least have a guy run a tablet out to him?

[Mr. WEO]

10 hours ago, Sammy Watkins' Rib said:

 

What does that have to do with anything? 

 

We obviously are not seeing eye to eye here. If a receiver completes a catch and crosses the plane of the goal line it will rightly be ruled a TD regardless if they fumble afterwards. 

 

The play below if probably the most famous example of the process of the catch not being completed at the goal line. What is important to note here is that the goal line is irrelevant. This would have been an incomplete pass even if it was caught at midfield or on the sideline. If Jesse James were to have been ruled as completing the catch before extending for the goal line then it would have been a TD once the nose of the ball touches the plane of the goal line. 

 

 

 

One more time:  I favor them changing the rule for passes caught in the end zone.  I'm aware of how it works now--no need to keep reiterating the rule.

[bobobonators]

7 hours ago, LabattBlue said:

One thing driving me crazy about the officials the last couple of years?  Seems whenever the ball is close to the first down marker, it always seems to be “just give it to them”.  Forget bringing out the chains, they don’t even eyeball it.  Just run up and swing the arm to move the chains.  

Now that you mention it, I don’t remember seeing the chains come out in a long time. 

[Sammy Watkins' Rib]

51 minutes ago, Mr. WEO said:

 

One more time:  I favor them changing the rule for passes caught in the end zone.  I'm aware of how it works now--no need to keep reiterating the rule.

 

You were not really clear on that point.  But now that you are, how would that pass the rules committee?

You want the rule changed to to not having to completely catch the ball (by current rules) if you are in the end zone. But leave the same catch requirements by current rules  in the field of play outside of the end zone. 
 

I don’t see that passing the rules committee. They are not going to make it easier to catch a ball in the end zone vs anywhere else on the field.

Edited November 11 by Sammy Watkins' Rib

[Mr. WEO]

1 hour ago, Sammy Watkins' Rib said:

 

You were not really clear on that point.  But now that you are, how would that pass the rules committee?

You want the rule changed to to not having to completely catch the ball (by current rules) if you are in the end zone. But leave the same catch requirements by current rules  in the field of play outside of the end zone. 
 

I don’t see that passing the rules committee. They are not going to make it easier to catch a ball in the end zone vs anywhere else on the field.

 

The fumble by a runner rules are different at the goal line, so why not?  Runner loses the ball before down by contact in the field, it's a fumble. Runner lunging across the goal line where ball crosses the plane, but he  loses the ball before he's down by contact just scored a TD.

 

 

[Sammy Watkins' Rib]

9 minutes ago, Mr. WEO said:

 

The fumble by a runner rules are different at the goal line, so why not?  Runner loses the ball before down by contact in the field, it's a fumble. Runner lunging across the goal line where ball crosses the plane, but he  loses the ball before he's down by contact just scored a TD.

 

 

correct. but what they did with that rule is they actually made it tougher to score a touchdown for a runner by fear of losing control just prior to the goal line.

So if anything, the league would make it tougher to score touchdown by catch versus completing process of catch anywhere else on the field.

 

The fumble/touchback rule is one that’s been hotly debated for years now, but the league and competition committee has refused to change it. They like the fact that protection of the ball at the line is of upmost importance.

11 minutes ago, Mr. WEO said:

 

The fumble by a runner rules are different at the goal line, so why not?  Runner loses the ball before down by contact in the field, it's a fumble. Runner lunging across the goal line where ball crosses the plane, but he  loses the ball before he's down by contact just scored a TD.

 

 

my original reply to this post I thought you were talking about the touchback rule. Sorry I didn’t read your whole post before I replied.

 

so obviously, the goal line ends the play once that tip of the nose of the ball touches the white of the goal line plain it’s a touchdown that’s why the fumble afterwards is moot.

 

 

Edited November 11 by Sammy Watkins' Rib

[PayDaBill$]

Refs not calling anything on Colts Dayo Odeyingb for throwing punches and hitting JA was absolutely ridiculous.  That needs to be revisited and a fine levied.

Edited November 11 by PayDaBill$

[Saxum]

Require that referees call for timeout after any punch in head requiring video review and missing that call should result in suspension.

 

 

[SoCal Deek]

They have all of this fixed in European soccer. The VAR (video assist referee) buzzes down to the ref and has him look at the replay on a sideline monitor. It takes no more than a few seconds to get things sorted out. 

[Orlando Buffalo]

On 11/12/2024 at 6:48 PM, SoCal Deek said:

They have all of this fixed in European soccer. The VAR (video assist referee) buzzes down to the ref and has him look at the replay on a sideline monitor. It takes no more than a few seconds to get things sorted out. 

They still screw up VAR at times but I agree it is better. I am watching the Thursday game and I can't believe that some people here actually argue NFL is better than MLB. I see horrible calls every few games in MLB, I can't remember the last half of football without a ridiculous call. In last 6 minutes of game time there were two horrendous calls. 

[CircleTheWagons99]

I saw on Facebook that the refs are sueing McD for comments made about them after the Indy game, I don't find Facebook credible so has anyone heard this from a real source?

[Zag20]

The head ref should probably just be sitting in front of a monitor and not even on the field. This requires one extra guy per crew, I suppose. Most terrible calls/non calls could be fixed in seconds by simply watching the TV broadcast. I say this with a caveat. I think the officiating is generally pretty good and it’s a very difficult job. But with all the angles and super slo mo, the burden of proof is greater now.

Edited November 15 by Zag20

[Einstein]

On 11/11/2024 at 12:13 AM, LabattBlue said:

One thing driving me crazy about the officials the last couple of years?  Seems whenever the ball is close to the first down marker, it always seems to be “just give it to them”.  Forget bringing out the chains, they don’t even eyeball it.  Just run up and swing the arm to move the chains.  

 

Woh.

 

That hadn’t occurred to me, but you’re absolutely right - we rarely ever seen the chain come out anymore.

 

I wonder if this is their way of getting us use to them using hawkeye and completely getting rid of chains.

 

I hate how much of the game I fell in love with growing up is being stripped away.

[Saxum]

The only NFL will make changes is if they make more money or stop losing money when viewers go down.

Maybe there is some new subscription channel they can create where they have reviews of each game which will will illustrate what call should have been called or if it was a good call critisized explain the full rule.   

[billsfan89]

This is a serious question. When has officiating ever been considered good?

 

I've been a fan of the NFL for 25 years and I have always heard how bad officiating is. And while there is legitimate criticism to be had of officiating it has never seemed like fans have ever liked officiating or thought officials weren't a problem. For fans in this thread saying that officiating is a recent problem, what years would you say were great years for officiating and why? 

[GunnerBill]

6 hours ago, Einstein said:

 

Woh.

 

That hadn’t occurred to me, but you’re absolutely right - we rarely ever seen the chain come out anymore.

 

I wonder if this is their way of getting us use to them using hawkeye and completely getting rid of chains.

 

I hate how much of the game I fell in love with growing up is being stripped away.

 

You fell in love with the chain gang? Yea.... that might just be you.

5 hours ago, billsfan89 said:

This is a serious question. When has officiating ever been considered good?

 

I've been a fan of the NFL for 25 years and I have always heard how bad officiating is. And while there is legitimate criticism to be had of officiating it has never seemed like fans have ever liked officiating or thought officials weren't a problem. For fans in this thread saying that officiating is a recent problem, what years would you say were great years for officiating and why? 

 

I think officiating has always been about the same. The thing that leads to so many unwatchable flag fests now is the rule book has got ever more complicated and that is where I'd start in trying to tidy it up. 

[Einstein]

4 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

 

You fell in love with the chain gang? Yea.... that might just be you.

 

The intermediate parts of anything you love may not be miraculous on their own but if you begin to disassemble the parts that makes the whole, you will inevitably begin to realize that the entirety of what you loved has changed far beyond the individual part you did not think was all that great.

 

Watch a game from the 80’s and it’s shocking how drastically different everything is.

[dgrochester55]

Last year, I saw a lot of biased calling serious enough to make people entertain the thought of rigged. This year, not so much outside of the KC/Cincy game. but instead just flag fests and general incompetence across the board.  The Bills/Jets game stands out as an example but there are plenty of others. It makes some games unwatchable.

 

Too many subjective calls and rules open to interpretation. Even the officials appear to be confused in some instances.  The NFL needs to reform officiating. Maybe a streamlining of the rules and/or some types of automated instant verification as a backup option for officials. I am tired for three or four commercial breaks solely due to officials conferring in each game.

Edited November 15 by dgrochester55

[thronethinker]

11 hours ago, Einstein said:

 

Woh.

 

That hadn’t occurred to me, but you’re absolutely right - we rarely ever seen the chain come out anymore.

 

I wonder if this is their way of getting us use to them using hawkeye and completely getting rid of chains.

 

I hate how much of the game I fell in love with growing up is being stripped away.

Removing the chain measurement speeds up the game which in turn allows more time to stop the game for more commercials later on. This is the real reason as advertisements are where the money is.

Edited November 15 by thronethinker

[Einstein]

3 minutes ago, thronethinker said:

Removing the chain measurement speeds up the game which in turn allows more time to stop the game for more commercials later on. This is the real reason as advertisements are where the money is.

 

Ahh. What an improvement!