Part of why ratings are down. Two words- Al Riveron

[Eagle60]

Controversial replay reversal wipes out Bills TD
Dec
24
12/24/2017 2:43:54 PM
|More
In its latest controversial decision about a catch, the NFL overturned a 4-yard touchdown reception by Buffalo Bills wide receiver Kelvin Benjamin in Sunday's game against the New England Patriots, Mike Rodak of ESPN.com reports.

Benjamin was ruled by officials on the field as having caught the pass from Bills quarterback Tyrod Taylor in the corner of the end zone. The play would have given the Bills a 16-13 lead before an extra-point attempt with two seconds left in halftime.

The touchdown triggered an automatic replay review by the NFL's central replay office. Replays showed Benjamin had both feet in bounds but camera angles were inconclusive about whether Benjamin, who initially caught the pass with only his right hand, had full control of the ball when he was in bounds.

The NFL's football operations department released the following explanation on Twitter shortly after the ruling:


NFL Football Operations
✔
@NFLFootballOps
In #BUFvsNE, when Kelvin Benjamin gains control, his left foot is off the ground. The receiver only has one foot down in bounds with control. Therefore, it is an incomplete pass. -AL

2:35 PM - Dec 24, 2017
3,467 3,467 Replies 1,344 1,344 Retweets 1,956 1,956 likes
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After referee Craig Wrolstad announced the touchdown had been overturned, Bills kicker Stephen Hauschka converted a 23-yard field goal to tie the game at 13 entering halftime.

How many replays have been ruled that make no sense to the viewers by this over officious jerk with his off the wall decisions?

[NoDakIggle]

I really think they have lost the definition of clear and convincing evidence that the call on the field was wrong.

[Rossovich]

I believe Al is full of shit with this ruling.

[Eagle60]

I believe Al is full of shit with this ruling.

I think you know the type of jerk this guy is Ross. The type of guy who can clear a room at a party in 5 minutes. He is an expert in anything and proceeds to tell you why. He now has a national stage to show all America that he is smarter than everybody else with his self serving bs rulings looking for any excuse to be controversial.

[Rossovich]

I think you know the type of jerk this guy is Ross. The type of guy who can clear a room at a party in 5 minutes. He is an expert in anything and proceeds to tell you why. He now has a national stage to show all America that he is smarter than everybody else with his self serving bs rulings looking for any excuse to be controversial.

He certainly got the spotlight on Sunday.

[Eagle60]

He certainly got the spotlight on Sunday.

I was waiting for him to pork us on Darby's INT.

[Eagle60]

Peter King dead on about RIVERON

ON INSTANT REPLAY
Roger Goodell needs to summon NFL officiating czar Al Riveron into his office this week and tell him to stop playing God. That’s all I can think to rationally say in the wake of the incongruous replay reversal in Foxboro on Sunday, and the micromanaging tenor of the officiating department as a whole.

This is a fact: There wasn’t enough incontrovertible video evidence to overturn the Kelvin Benjamin touchdown reception just before halftime in the Bills-Patriots game. Not even close. Is it possible that Benjamin’s left foot left the ground and wasn’t touching anything but air by the time he secured the ball in the end zone? Yes. Possible. Maybe even probable. But not certain. Definitely not certain. I watched that play 10 times via CBS replay while waiting three minutes and 17 seconds for ref Craig Wrolstad to announce the call after consultation with the New York officiating command center. Then, on Monday, I watched twice all the way through on the game telecast—20 more replays, in all—and there is no way you could see whether Benjamin’s foot lost contact with the ground before he gained possession of the ball.

You could say you thought he did, and you could say you’re pretty sure he did. But you can’t say with certainty, because it was not certain. And the league’s hallmark for overturning a call is that there has to be definitive evidence, 100 percent evidence, to prove that the call on the field was wrong.



What’s happening is that the officiating command center, it seems to me, is re-officiating calls on the field. This was a perfect example. On the field, two officials called it a touchdown. It was a close call. If they’d called it incomplete because Benjamin was out of bounds, there wouldn’t have been enough evidence to overturn it. Similarly, there wasn’t enough evidence to overturn what the officials did call on the field. But Riveron has tried in one season to make officiating perfect. Officiating cannot be perfect. There are some times you simply have to say, Correcting a 50-50 call is not what replay was intended for. That’s why Goodell has to step in, and right now. For the good of the game, he’s got to tell Riveron to correct the obviously wrong calls, not the ones half the fans in a bar in Topeka would call one way and half the other way.

“It is more and more obvious that there isn’t a standard for staying with the call on the field,” tweeted one previous VP for officiating, Mike Pereira.

“We’re being overly technical. The call on the field should have stood,” said another previous VP for officiating, Dean Blandino.

Replay’s a great part of the game when used correctly. It absolutely should not be scrapped. But if the league continues to allow Riveron to make calls like the Benjamin reversal, replay should die. It’ll be doing more harm than good.

[MDFAN]

Yup, couldn't agree more -- Especially this part--- "Officiating cannot be perfect. There are some times you simply have to say, Correcting a 50-50 call is not what replay was intended for. That’s why Goodell has to step in, and right now."

Replay was always intended to correct obvious errors... not things that a human eye could not possibly see in real time with real eyeballs. 4 camera angles transposed upon each other for a frame by frame view is not what anybody signed up for , IMHO.

[Eagle60]

Yup, couldn't agree more -- Especially this part--- "Officiating cannot be perfect. There are some times you simply have to say, Correcting a 50-50 call is not what replay was intended for. That’s why Goodell has to step in, and right now."

Replay was always intended to correct obvious errors... not things that a human eye could not possibly see in real time with real eyeballs. 4 camera angles transposed upon each other for a frame by frame view is not what anybody signed up for , IMHO.

Or adding SPECULATION to a play that is already suspect which is the whole point of replay to eliminate!! This guy in layman's terms is a complete arroggant fuking asshole!

[NoDakIggle]

Amazing that the entire corps of football fans see that they are not correcting obvious mistake but rather are trying to evaluate every bit of minutia but the officials can't see that.
Full speed is the way to go

[Jukin]

I have to say officiating is the number 1 issue for me as far as things that need to be fixed in the NFL. Forget protests. Forget out of control salaries or an overly powerful and arrogant commissioner. Getting the officials to stop determining games with bullshit calls and imaginary penalties needs to be the to priority. It is starting to get bad enough to cause me to turn off the game.

[Eagle60]

I have to say officiating is the number 1 issue for me as far as things that need to be fixed in the NFL. Forget protests. Forget out of control salaries or an overly powerful and arrogant commissioner. Getting the officials to stop determining games with bullshit calls and imaginary penalties needs to be the to priority. It is starting to get bad enough to cause me to turn off the game.

I think Goodell tried to do just that Juk by having one guy in NY make all of the replay calls so that they would be consistent at least in that part of it. The problem is that he picked the wrong friekin guy! He needs to be fired yesterday!!