The NFL and the Referee Association just recently announce a new labor agreement. Before that, they were in negotiations and during those negotiations, the refs were making the games unwatchable by calling every little foul. We had those games with 25-30 accepted penalties occurring all the time. As soon as the agreement was announced, it went back closer to normal. So you be the judge. Were the refs doing it on purpose to force a deal? It sure looks that way to me. If so, that also proves once and for all that refs are in complete control of what happens on the field and can easily pick winners and losers. They showed during the first few weeks that they can basically throw the flag on every play if they want to. That means they are and have been a visually overlooking penalties and basically picking and choosing when and when not to call a penalty. The league needs to figure out how to clean the officiating up. I don’t really see any easy way to do it except to start firing people who miss blatant calls or keep getting calls wrong. They have to be accountable and their jobs should be on the line each and every week.
