Officiating has to change NFL wide

[Everson24]

I just wish they could remove the bias from referees but I know that is impossible. If you hate the Dallas Cowboys as a person it will affect how you call the game. You basically see what your subconscious wants to see. This has been a problem for the Raiders of the 70s and 80s and the Dallas Cowboys since 1995.

Unfortunately for me at least, the Steelers, Packers and Giants benefit from being on the other side of the bias.

 

[xwalker]

I just wish they could remove the bias from referees but I know that is impossible. If you hate the Dallas Cowboys as a person it will affect how you call the game. You basically see what your subconscious wants to see. This has been a problem for the Raiders of the 70s and 80s and the Dallas Cowboys since 1995.

Unfortunately for me at least, the Steelers, Packers and Giants benefit from being on the other side of the bias.

They can't remove bias from individual refs, but they could have a much better scheme to manage potential biases.

1. Both the hometown and current residence of refs should be put into a database and plotted on a map. The geographical concentration of all NFL refs should show a wide distribution; however, I suspect that it would show a strong concentration of refs with both hometown and current residences in the North East.

2. The residential info should be used to make up the crews. No ref crew should have multiple refs with similar geographical stats.

3. Another thing they could do is to just totally prevent a ref from officiating a game that involved a team that he might have a bias towards.

The reason I say hometown is because fan affiliation is often connected with where a person lived in High School earlier.

The reason I say current residence is because refs feel strong pressure from friends neighbors and often family members to "help" their team. I've seen stories about a refs kids being mad at him for a call he made that went against the team where they lived.

 

[Hoofbite]

Simplify the rule book and get full time refs

This. When instant replay fails to provide consistent applications of the same rule, maybe the rules are too damn confusing to be worthwhile.

 

[TheDallasDon]

It needs to become a topic for the mainstream media. Until the fans via the media put more pressure on the NFL, nothing will happen.

I don't think most people realize that at the heart of the problem is for lack of a better word, the politics behind the scenes. The refs union makes changes difficult. They do a lot of things just directed at protecting their job and their industry. They've always resisted technology which is why the replay rules have evolved in a odd way. They resist a disciplinary system with any teeth in it, again to protect themselves. They have a very large sense of arrogance and entitlement that almost rivals the Wade Phillips era Cowboys.

The NFL has ended up with odd workarounds. The booth officials as we found out were not in the union; however, they seem to be intimidated by the on field refs who it appears are from an employment standpoint are at higher level than them.

The NFL has Blandino who was never a ref in his life as their "boss" because the NFL wanted someone that was not the the "clique" with the refs but he has just turned out to be an idiot whose primary job is to go around explaining why certain call were made.

It is unfortunate that the NFL didn't just break the union and stay with college refs. I'm convinced those refs would have been as good as the regular refs by the 2nd season and would eventually be able to exceed them without all the nonsense involved with a union.

If you don't know, any dealings with unions are very difficult and their only reason for existence is to improve the personal lives of their members, not to improve their industry. Union are the reason that Detroit is a ghost town. Car companies just moved away to get away from unions that were impossible to deal with. The unions in the industry were also a big part of the rise of the import autos back in the last seventies. It was difficult in the late seventies to make cars when at guy whose only job was to install the battery was making $25 dollars per hour at a time the minimum wage was below $5 per hour. Unions were terrific when they first came into existence, before the government really put any controls on industry, but they've evolved to just lower lower product quality.

X, simply the best at slipping Wade disses into every post lol

 

[xwalker]

X, simply the best at slipping Wade disses into every post lol

Yep, but I didn't manage to get a Doug Free shot in on that post. I'll try harder next time.

 

[DandyDon1722]

One thing we know for sure Packer fans didn't spend the entire off-season ripping Blandino. Being an official or having anything to do with the officiating is a thankless job. I sympathize with them because it's a tough job. If you go out and play a solid mistake free game officiating isn't going to determine the outcome. Solid play and knowing the rules can avoid having a game come down to an officials call.

I officiated college basketball for ten years - you're right - its unbelievably hard and thankless.

 

[nathanlt]

Officiating is a thankless job half the country is going to love a call while the other half is going to hate it. If a call goes in favor of your team it's a great call even if it's a bad call. FANS boo even the most obvious calls if they go against their team. Every Cowboy FAN in America hates Dean Blandino but Packer fans love him. Would hate to have a job where you make a call that has half the country jumping for joy and the other half cursing it with some out there wanting to kill you.

I don't mind a call against the Cowboys that follows the rule book. As I've said before, Blandino didn't follow what was written in the rule book. He tried to enforce what he was thinking about when the rule was written. By rule, Dez caught the ball. 1st and goal Dallas at the Packers 1.

 

[Rogah]

If i could like this infinite times i would

I am not saying I oppose simplifying the rule book, but to do so would lead to a whole host of other problems. The NFL does not want a catch to be subjective. They want it to be 100% objective. Of course, it is impossible to be completely objective because people will argue for months over what constitutes "a football move" and so forth, but to simplify the whole thing open a whole 'nother can o' worms.

 

[basstapp]

I think the only way to improve officiating is to create competition. Employee more referees and when an official performs bad the essentially get benched and don't come back until another ref gets benched. If they go 2-3 weeks without officiating then it may teach them a lesson

 

[csirl]

I think one of the problems is the way NCAA and NFL rules differ. Most NFL officials spend most of their careers in the NCAA before joining the NFL. They then have to learn a load of new stuff. The sport needs rules convergence.

The most difficult aspect of officiating is determining whether or not a foul impacts on the play. Except for personals or unsportsmanlike officials are told only to flag fouls impacting the outcome. This takes experience and some savvy to get right. I've noticed that officials are getting this wrong more often than previous years.

 

[cowboyblue22]

why would you want to change something you have worked so hard to prefect when you have it where you can change games to get the results you want .

 

[mahoneybill]

I hate the 10 yard penalty and loss of play on a holding call. It almost always kills the drive and it can be called on every play. I find it especially annoying when it's not a hold that had an effect on the play. It's too steep a price for such a common penalty.

Also why not call the " tug to the ground" that the Eagles defender was using to beat Smith with. How is that not the same as holding... Even the announcers citied this was the reason he was having success....

Maybe that was code to NY that you are really missing this, so give some type of makeup call in the next series....

 

[Longboysfan]

With that said, sometimes I wonder where they find these guys who officiates some of these NFL games. I feel like my grandma could referee better than some of them.

There are plenty of Nursing homes across the USA with people sitting about doing nothing.

 

[Don Corleone]

One thing we know for sure Packer fans didn't spend the entire off-season ripping Blandino. Being an official or having anything to do with the officiating is a thankless job. I sympathize with them because it's a tough job. If you go out and play a solid mistake free game officiating isn't going to determine the outcome. Solid play and knowing the rules can avoid having a game come down to an officials call.

Sorry man. This is complete BS. The rules are vague to allow the refs a hand in the outcome. The NFL has a right to govern outcomes for your entertainment.

 

[Idgit]

Refs need to recede into the background. They're too big a part of the outcomes of games, and the NFL puts them front and center with replay and with inviting old heads of officiating to comment on calls on the field.

It's not a bias issue, though. It's just a situation where differences in how plays are called can affect who wins and who loses, and teams are scheming to get calls in gray areas. It's not good for the game, long term.

 

[KJJ]

Sorry man. This is complete BS. The rules are vague to allow the refs a hand in the outcome. The NFL has a right to govern outcomes for your entertainment.

The refs are always going to have a hand in the outcome they officiate the games. It's your "opinion" what's BS and what isn't. I'm tired of arguing the damn rules every team has to play under the same rules.

 

[Don Corleone]

The refs are always going to have a hand in the outcome they officiate the games. It's your "opinion" what's BS and what isn't. I'm tired of arguing the damn rules every team has to play under the same rules.

Please. They have every right to manufacture outcomes. The refs opportunistically make calls to shape outcomes. Play a perfect game my ***.

 

[KJJ]

Please. They have every right to manufacture outcomes. The refs opportunistically make calls to shape outcomes. Play a perfect game my ***.

That's complete BS! They do the best they can to get the calls right and make mistakes because it's a tough job. If you play solid football you don't have to worry about a call costing you a game.

 

[Rogah]

Sorry man. This is complete BS. The rules are vague to allow the refs a hand in the outcome. The NFL has a right to govern outcomes for your entertainment.

No they do not. Manipulating the outcome or events in a sporting contest is a federal crime. If the league was telling the refs to "help" out a certain team, or even "help" the team which is behind to create a more exciting conclusion, then people would go to jail.

Now, of course, I am not saying biases don't exist, but I am talking about the deliberate manipulation of the outcome.

 

[KB1122]

No they do not. Manipulating the outcome or events in a sporting contest is a federal crime. If the league was telling the refs to "help" out a certain team, or even "help" the team which is behind to create a more exciting conclusion, then people would go to jail.

I take it you've never watched college basketball.