NFL officiating is broken. How do we fix it?

[Sierra Foothills]

28 minutes ago, Einstein said:

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.

 

 

[billsfan89]

12 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

 

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

 

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. 

The reason the rule book is so intricate and complex is because coaches exploit any little bit of lack of clarity to take advantage. So as the loopholes or exploits pile up they have to make rule changes. There’s also the added nuances of player safety and replay that add more calls to what a referee has to police. 
 

I also wonder if lower quality of offensive line play due to lack of collegiate development at the position has also added to more holding calls? Not sure what’s the data on that but it wouldn’t shock me

[Coffeesforclosers]

We bring back the ancient Roman tradition of the Decimatio.

 

Whenever a call is blown, ALL ref crews gather in a single place and draw straws until 1 in 10 are selected.  Then all the short straws are beaten to death by the survivors.

 

This could be done after the author of the current catch rules is led away to the Guillotine, but I'll stop mixing historical metaphors.

 

 

[Shaw66]

Full time officials and booth review.

 

Full time officials would cost each team $1 million a year. Worth to improve the credibility of the game.  

[Fleezoid]

17 minutes ago, Coffeesforclosers said:

We bring back the ancient Roman tradition of the Decimatio.

 

Whenever a call is blown, ALL ref crews gather in a single place and draw straws until 1 in 10 are selected.  Then all the short straws are beaten to death by the survivors.

 

This could be done after the author of the current catch rules is led away to the Guillotine, but I'll stop mixing historical metaphors.

 

 

 

I think I found that person: