NFL Officiating

RustyBourneHorse

RustyBourneHorse

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I have to ask. What in the world is going on with the NFL Officiating? I'm not just talking about Cowboys games. I'm talking about the refs in all the games! The Patriots got royally screwed by Tony Corrente's crew (with whom I have many issues). It's making the sport unwatchable. I've only been watching since 1999-2000, so I may not be as knowledgeable as some of you when it comes to watching the game. Has the NFL's officiating ever been this consistently bad? This is downright putrid!
 
Pape

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is what it is, what is always been ... get some calls, get royally screwed on others... the nfl won't do anything about it, so meh... won't stop me from watching the games though...
 
LACowboysFan1

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Furboy said:
I have to ask. What in the world is going on with the NFL Officiating? I'm not just talking about Cowboys games. I'm talking about the refs in all the games! The Patriots got royally screwed by Tony Corrente's crew (with whom I have many issues). It's making the sport unwatchable. I've only been watching since 1999-2000, so I may not be as knowledgeable as some of you when it comes to watching the game. Has the NFL's officiating ever been this consistently bad? This is downright putrid!
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As I see it there are several things going on with the officiating:

1. Speed of the game is faster than 20 years ago, it's harder for mere humans to keep up.
2. With the advancement of technology, especially with the advent years ago of the super slow motion cameras, it's easier to see what actually happened, vs. what the refs can see in real time. (Which relates to point 1)
3. With more plays subject to review, the refs are having to try and decide on the fly if a penalty really happened or not, they know they will be scrutinized endlessly by coaches, and are as much trying not to make a mistake as to make a call.
4. Techniques are developing all the time, Michael Irvin made pushing off an art form, the "I was swinging my arm to get to the ball and in the process I hit the defender, not my fault I'm 210 lbs and the cornerback is 180 and fell backwards" reasoning.

Refs always made mistakes, always will. Are refs totally unbiased? Of course not, again, they're human, think if some player griped about a call too much that player might "tick off" the ref so that a close call later is called against that player's team, or not called? I just have to wonder after that uncalled Saints play, the ref was RIGHT THERE and he couldn't see it? Then the refs talked and NOBODY said they saw what was one of the most egregious missed calls I've ever seen (and I'm NOT a Saints fan)?

Officials will always make mistakes, until they can go to robot or computer officials it's never going to be perfect...
 
RustyBourneHorse

RustyBourneHorse

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LACowboysFan1 said:
As I see it there are several things going on with the officiating:

1. Speed of the game is faster than 20 years ago, it's harder for mere humans to keep up.
2. With the advancement of technology, especially with the advent years ago of the super slow motion cameras, it's easier to see what actually happened, vs. what the refs can see in real time. (Which relates to point 1)
3. With more plays subject to review, the refs are having to try and decide on the fly if a penalty really happened or not, they know they will be scrutinized endlessly by coaches, and are as much trying not to make a mistake as to make a call.
4. Techniques are developing all the time, Michael Irvin made pushing off an art form, the "I was swinging my arm to get to the ball and in the process I hit the defender, not my fault I'm 210 lbs and the cornerback is 180 and fell backwards" reasoning.

Refs always made mistakes, always will. Are refs totally unbiased? Of course not, again, they're human, think if some player griped about a call too much that player might "tick off" the ref so that a close call later is called against that player's team, or not called? I just have to wonder after that uncalled Saints play, the ref was RIGHT THERE and he couldn't see it? Then the refs talked and NOBODY said they saw what was one of the most egregious missed calls I've ever seen (and I'm NOT a Saints fan)?

Officials will always make mistakes, until they can go to robot or computer officials it's never going to be perfect...
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I don't mind the speed of the game being quicker. I quite like that. And you're probably right about all of that.
 
Flamma

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Furboy said:
I don't mind the speed of the game being quicker. I quite like that. And you're probably right about all of that.
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I don't think the game is faster now than 20 years ago. I believe that peaked sometime during the 90s. In all decades you had your fast players. But now we pretty much have them at every position. Where that wasn't the case many years ago.

I just think the refs are bogged down with too many new rules happening at a fast pace. I'm probably wrong here, but I don't recall so many penalties being thrown for things that never happened on the field. That's not a mistake IMO, I don't know what to call it.
 
Flamma

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LACowboysFan1 said:
If more players are fast now than before, that still makes the game faster overall....
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I agree. I just think that there hasn't been any significant difference Between now and 20 years ago.
 
LACowboysFan1

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Flamma said:
I agree. I just think that there hasn't been any significant difference Between now and 20 years ago.
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The top 40 time at the 2000 combine was 4.34, with only 3 sub 4.4 times. The 2020 combine it was 4.27 with 12 sub 4.0 times. The number difference itself is small, but it equates to a couple of feet difference in distance between the times. To me that's significant, but if it's not to you, I get it.

Really hard to tell anyway, can't take a 2000 team and play it next to a 2020 team for comparison...
 
Flamma

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LACowboysFan1 said:
The top 40 time at the 2000 combine was 4.34, with only 3 sub 4.4 times. The 2020 combine it was 4.27 with 12 sub 4.0 times. The number difference itself is small, but it equates to a couple of feet difference in distance between the times. To me that's significant, but if it's not to you, I get it.

Really hard to tell anyway, can't take a 2000 team and play it next to a 2020 team for comparison...
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But is that something that's going to change the speed of the game league wide?
 
RustyBourneHorse

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Flamma said:
I don't think the game is faster now than 20 years ago. I believe that peaked sometime during the 90s. In all decades you had your fast players. But now we pretty much have them at every position. Where that wasn't the case many years ago.

I just think the refs are bogged down with too many new rules happening at a fast pace. I'm probably wrong here, but I don't recall so many penalties being thrown for things that never happened on the field. That's not a mistake IMO, I don't know what to call it.
Click to expand...

I guess fantasy football may have had a hand in this?
 

DripTooHard

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Furboy said:
I have to ask. What in the world is going on with the NFL Officiating? I'm not just talking about Cowboys games. I'm talking about the refs in all the games! The Patriots got royally screwed by Tony Corrente's crew (with whom I have many issues). It's making the sport unwatchable. I've only been watching since 1999-2000, so I may not be as knowledgeable as some of you when it comes to watching the game. Has the NFL's officiating ever been this consistently bad? This is downright putrid!
Click to expand...

The NFL is entertainment and not a sport. This is written on the back of every game ticket. Sport aims for fair competition. Entertainment doesn’t follow the same standards. This means that the refs are placed to ensure games remain close and competitive for as long as possible. This keeps people glued to their TVs while ad revenue rolls in for the NFL. I’m not implying that games are rigged. I am however stating that outcomes of the games are steered by the league and the officials play a key role with timely, or untimely calls.
 
RustyBourneHorse

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DripTooHard said:
The NFL is entertainment and not a sport. This is written on the back of every game ticket. Sport aims for fair competition. Entertainment doesn’t follow the same standards. This means that the refs are placed to ensure games remain close and competitive for as long as possible. This keeps people glued to their TVs while ad revenue rolls in for the NFL. I’m not implying that games are rigged. I am however stating that outcomes of the games are steered by the league and the officials play a key role with timely, or untimely calls.
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That's true.
 
Flamma

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How about that trash call in the Browns game? Unnecessary roughness after a Cowboys defender hit Hunt on a swing pass. Said it was a hit to a defenseless WR. What was he supposed to do, wait for Hunt to make a football move? Do these refs understand the game? Does that rule apply after you catch the ball? Besides, it's called 1 out of every 50 times it happens. I guess they're consistent.
 
Point-of-the-Star

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DripTooHard said:
The NFL is entertainment and not a sport. This is written on the back of every game ticket. Sport aims for fair competition. Entertainment doesn’t follow the same standards. This means that the refs are placed to ensure games remain close and competitive for as long as possible. This keeps people glued to their TVs while ad revenue rolls in for the NFL. I’m not implying that games are rigged. I am however stating that outcomes of the games are steered by the league and the officials play a key role with timely, or untimely calls.
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This is so spot on !!!!! 4- part series I watched years ago so I gave you 2 parts but there is soooo many other compelling videos just on Youtube.


 

Havic

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If they would get back to just letting the players play and only calling obvious infractions the game would be alot more enjoyable. Instead we get a bunch of player safety non sense and make up calls.
 
SumGuy

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To me the biggest issue is the inconsistency. Just like a strike-zone in baseball, it's fine if it's bad, as long as it's bad for both sides at all times. The gross inconsistency in how NFL games are called is what bothers me the most, especially when it's within the same game. With that said, I won't be losing sleep over it -- until it costs us a chance at the playoffs or more.
 
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