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Lets face it, after watching several games including the Eagles games the officiating in the NFL is down right horrible. Its effecting the pace of the game, the flow of the game, the watchability of the game and making for a watered down product. Is this all the officials fault. NO it is not. They are human, the game is fast and there is too many judgement calls and not enough electronic help. . The advent of all 22 tape and the ability for a laymen to super slow down a frame to say see he left a millisecond early should have been a penalty is just killing it. Add in TV commentators who don't know the rules even "" rules analysts who don't know the rules as they are written today (maybe they know the 10 year ago rules) and you have some major issues on how the game is officiated. Its makes for confusion for the fans, the players etc.
Here is what I see as major problems.
1. The last two years we have seen some of the worst rule changes in the game.
1 Why mess with the kickoff , 2. Why have a "" sportmanship point of emphasis that is basically a judgement call for the officials that injects bias into the game. 3. Why change the kicking balls.
Example - Team 1 kicks the ball off, Team 2 runs it back to the 32 yard line (average starting point). Offense runs a play for 3 yards and the defense makes a great tackle and the defensive player gets up and celebrates a great play. He gets up and turns to his side and waves his arms flapping like a Bird. Official deems that unsportsmanlike and they get a 15 yard penalty. Now the Offense has run one play for 3 yards and is at the 50 yard line with a fresh set of down. Defense hold them for 5 yards on the next three plays. Kicker comes in kicks a 60 yard field goal and an offense who gained a total of 8 yards has put up 3 points.
That is not what the game was meant to be. What did the defense do wrong? They didn't give up a 1st down, they gave up 8 yards after a kick was brought to the 32 yard line, 68 yards from a TD. The game is emotional and they celebrated a great play and they get a 15 yard penalty for that. Makes zero sense.
My only thought is the league wants more scoring. But more scoring doesn't make for better games, especially when you can then have a propriety of bias from the officials. In fact it makes for a bad product, one that is one side or the other in a game is consistently crying about the officiating.
2. The availability of ALL 22 tapes for youtube warriors and old QB's from the league to break down the tape. They slow down and overhead view of a play on the tape to see a player leaving a milisecond early (and in real time sometimes it hard to catch). That should have been a false start and start crying about it. However, the officials don't have a top down view. They have a side to side view from field level. Most of the officials are not the 6ft 8 Jordan Mailata types either. They are not going to see everything. But this type of behavior starts a narrative about a team.
The Chiefs went though that for several years (now some of this is was because of the player antics and getting calls from it, which inherited made it look biased and quite frankly in some cases it clearly was)
The Eagles seem to be the new darlings for this type of behavior. In the game yesterday, the broadcast slowed down the Ringo PBU. Did Ringo arrive slightly early in the slow downed version yes he did. Did it warrant a flag in real time. No it didn't The problem is when the broadcast calls it out, it goes with the narrative. Blandino and his crying about the Tush push etc. All bad for the league. Especially when you watch the rest of the game and there were several early hits on the Eagles receivers that didn't receive calls either. But not a peep from the broadcast. Instead another super slow mo pictures of Q grabbing a jersey that could have been a foul if the officials were watching the game in slow mo. In real time you don't see it. Funny thing is I saw the same thing from the Bucs and no super slow mo. It is happening in every game to. The broadcast choices a team they want to root for usually the team the player used to play for or the team opposite his rivals and its a consistent shit on the other team. Even thought the other team is clearly better. They are trying to get a narrative is they are only better because of XYZ.
All of this needs to be out of the game. The NFL needs to tell the broadcasts no more with the commenting on any of the calls and no more with the super slow mo stuff.
How to fix this
1. The USFL or one of the other leagues used to have an eye in the sky official. I would have an officials sitting in a box at the stadium for expediate reviews. Every time the officials get together to talk through if its a flag or not the eye in the sky weighs in. Every flag should be reviewed however for accuracy. It should not take any longer than one quick replay of where the foul occurred. This can be done quickly. It will take away penalizing a team for something a ref thought they saw. They are also scholars on the rules of the game full time officials
2. The entire sideline should have electronic readers and the ball should have a chip for ball placement. Too many bad spots lately. Some spot the ball where it was when the knee when down, some spot it where the knee is even if the ball was a full yard ahead. Just spot it where the ball got to when the whistle blew.
3. . All scoring plays are reviewed not just for in bounds or out of bounds but for penalties. Stop rewarding offenses for getting away with holds that result in scores. Stop rewarding defenses for PI that should have been called.
BTW all reviews should be done in real time. Overturning the play on the field has to be clear.
4. That brings me why is a multi billion dollar league not have full time officials? Just like teams spend every week reviewing film trying to get better the officials should be doing the same. They should be consistently reviewing the rule books for better knowledge. Not only that these guys have full time jobs elsewhere and they have to go back to those. Lets say X officials boss is Cowboys fan and that official makes a critical call against the Cowboys. do you think that official wants to face that the next day (I know this is extreme and most of these guys own their own companies and such) But this could happen. Why even have that at all.
Now you notice I didn't say we should use replay to call penalties on the field that were missed. The only place I said that is on scoring drives. Why you say? Because the Human element still needs to be in the game.
Overall I want offenses to earn points, I want defense to earn their stops, I want special teams to be special. Not some bad rule for kickoffs that is instantly rewarding teams.
I also enjoy a defensive slugfest as much as I enjoy an offensive outburst. For some reason the NFL front office thinks we all want offense. That is not true but they are managing the game that way. The rules are way slanted to the offense. That is what is causing these issues.
There have been issues with officials for years. However it is getting more pronounced. Back in the day 5 penalties on a team were a ton. Now that is below league average. We are seeing flags on 10% of the plays. 1 in 10 plays has a flag think about that. That is crazy. Used to be about 3%.
Here is what I see as major problems.
1. The last two years we have seen some of the worst rule changes in the game.
1 Why mess with the kickoff , 2. Why have a "" sportmanship point of emphasis that is basically a judgement call for the officials that injects bias into the game. 3. Why change the kicking balls.
Example - Team 1 kicks the ball off, Team 2 runs it back to the 32 yard line (average starting point). Offense runs a play for 3 yards and the defense makes a great tackle and the defensive player gets up and celebrates a great play. He gets up and turns to his side and waves his arms flapping like a Bird. Official deems that unsportsmanlike and they get a 15 yard penalty. Now the Offense has run one play for 3 yards and is at the 50 yard line with a fresh set of down. Defense hold them for 5 yards on the next three plays. Kicker comes in kicks a 60 yard field goal and an offense who gained a total of 8 yards has put up 3 points.
That is not what the game was meant to be. What did the defense do wrong? They didn't give up a 1st down, they gave up 8 yards after a kick was brought to the 32 yard line, 68 yards from a TD. The game is emotional and they celebrated a great play and they get a 15 yard penalty for that. Makes zero sense.
My only thought is the league wants more scoring. But more scoring doesn't make for better games, especially when you can then have a propriety of bias from the officials. In fact it makes for a bad product, one that is one side or the other in a game is consistently crying about the officiating.
2. The availability of ALL 22 tapes for youtube warriors and old QB's from the league to break down the tape. They slow down and overhead view of a play on the tape to see a player leaving a milisecond early (and in real time sometimes it hard to catch). That should have been a false start and start crying about it. However, the officials don't have a top down view. They have a side to side view from field level. Most of the officials are not the 6ft 8 Jordan Mailata types either. They are not going to see everything. But this type of behavior starts a narrative about a team.
The Chiefs went though that for several years (now some of this is was because of the player antics and getting calls from it, which inherited made it look biased and quite frankly in some cases it clearly was)
The Eagles seem to be the new darlings for this type of behavior. In the game yesterday, the broadcast slowed down the Ringo PBU. Did Ringo arrive slightly early in the slow downed version yes he did. Did it warrant a flag in real time. No it didn't The problem is when the broadcast calls it out, it goes with the narrative. Blandino and his crying about the Tush push etc. All bad for the league. Especially when you watch the rest of the game and there were several early hits on the Eagles receivers that didn't receive calls either. But not a peep from the broadcast. Instead another super slow mo pictures of Q grabbing a jersey that could have been a foul if the officials were watching the game in slow mo. In real time you don't see it. Funny thing is I saw the same thing from the Bucs and no super slow mo. It is happening in every game to. The broadcast choices a team they want to root for usually the team the player used to play for or the team opposite his rivals and its a consistent shit on the other team. Even thought the other team is clearly better. They are trying to get a narrative is they are only better because of XYZ.
All of this needs to be out of the game. The NFL needs to tell the broadcasts no more with the commenting on any of the calls and no more with the super slow mo stuff.
How to fix this
1. The USFL or one of the other leagues used to have an eye in the sky official. I would have an officials sitting in a box at the stadium for expediate reviews. Every time the officials get together to talk through if its a flag or not the eye in the sky weighs in. Every flag should be reviewed however for accuracy. It should not take any longer than one quick replay of where the foul occurred. This can be done quickly. It will take away penalizing a team for something a ref thought they saw. They are also scholars on the rules of the game full time officials
2. The entire sideline should have electronic readers and the ball should have a chip for ball placement. Too many bad spots lately. Some spot the ball where it was when the knee when down, some spot it where the knee is even if the ball was a full yard ahead. Just spot it where the ball got to when the whistle blew.
3. . All scoring plays are reviewed not just for in bounds or out of bounds but for penalties. Stop rewarding offenses for getting away with holds that result in scores. Stop rewarding defenses for PI that should have been called.
BTW all reviews should be done in real time. Overturning the play on the field has to be clear.
4. That brings me why is a multi billion dollar league not have full time officials? Just like teams spend every week reviewing film trying to get better the officials should be doing the same. They should be consistently reviewing the rule books for better knowledge. Not only that these guys have full time jobs elsewhere and they have to go back to those. Lets say X officials boss is Cowboys fan and that official makes a critical call against the Cowboys. do you think that official wants to face that the next day (I know this is extreme and most of these guys own their own companies and such) But this could happen. Why even have that at all.
Now you notice I didn't say we should use replay to call penalties on the field that were missed. The only place I said that is on scoring drives. Why you say? Because the Human element still needs to be in the game.
Overall I want offenses to earn points, I want defense to earn their stops, I want special teams to be special. Not some bad rule for kickoffs that is instantly rewarding teams.
I also enjoy a defensive slugfest as much as I enjoy an offensive outburst. For some reason the NFL front office thinks we all want offense. That is not true but they are managing the game that way. The rules are way slanted to the offense. That is what is causing these issues.
There have been issues with officials for years. However it is getting more pronounced. Back in the day 5 penalties on a team were a ton. Now that is below league average. We are seeing flags on 10% of the plays. 1 in 10 plays has a flag think about that. That is crazy. Used to be about 3%.
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