CFZ Some facts about NFL referees

[exciter]

I was surprised to learn that the avg pay for an NFL ref is about $200k a year.

12k per game!

 

[CWR]

I was surprised to learn that the avg pay for an NFL ref is about $200k a year.

Not bad for part time work.

 

[nathanlt]

Dean Blandino has never been an NFL referee on the field (only in the booth).

He was a comedian before he was Vice President of Officiating in the NFL. Baffling.

 

[nightrain]

The quality of NFL officiating has continually regressed and I believe it's because many of the field officials want to be part of the game and make more calls. A missed call is not great, but infinitely better than an erroneously called penalty.

The NFL needs to grant teams greater latitude with the Coach's Challenge by expanding it to include any and all aspects of a play. Keep the rules determining the number of challenges permitted the same, just open up what is challengeable to include penalties and missed calls.

 

[Bobhaze]

If anyone is interested in penalty numbers by team and by specific infraction, here is a good site to follow that:
https://www.footballdb.com/stats/penalties.html?yr=2023

That site keeps data on called penalties form 2006-2023.

 

[JustChip]

Good stuff, Bob.

Officials are human and imperfect, just like players and coaches. There are plays they’re screened out of, out of position, or simply focused away from where an infraction occurs. Being full-time won’t change that.

A reasonable step to help improve fans’ perception is to make everything challengeable. I would, personally, allot 1 more coach's challenge, but am ok if it stays the current 2. Also, I can see absolutely zero reasoning in booth only challenges the last 2 minutes.

 

[Iago33]

It’s an extremely difficult job and they do it quite well most of the time. My concern is with the system around them. We have the technology to make it easier and correct mistakes but there is a lack of transparency in our he processes.

 

[starfrombirth]

He was a comedian before he was Vice President of Officiating in the NFL. Baffling.

He's still a comedian!

 

[Bobhaze]

It’s an extremely difficult job and they do it quite well most of the time. My concern is with the system around them. We have the technology to make it easier and correct mistakes but there is a lack of transparency in our he processes.

Like you, I think we could have better interaction with the technology available. For example in that eagles-bills game last week, someone in the booth could call the umpire and let him know an egregious penalty took place (as happened with Josh Allen and the missed horse collar tackle on that would have been a big call at the time)

The NFL should look at allowing someone in the booth to make a call that was missed on the field.

 

[plymkr]

On top of what they earn off the field. In the 90s I did tax returns for an NFL official, Ed Coukart. He was also a bank president, which paid more. The notion that a guy like him is going to throw games for gambling money is the kind of stupid stuff I expect from fans on the internet. These guys don't need to risk federal imprisonment for money.

We went to lunch one day and I asked about Jimmy Johnson. His thoughts? Great coach who did everything he could to work the officials. Sounds about right.

That’s cool. I truly miss Jimmy as our coach. Have you ever watched the Netflix documentary on Tim Donahue(I think I’m spelling his last name wrong). The nba ref that got busted for fixing games. It’s really good. But what shocked me was all these hundreds of thousands of dollars, maybe millions, and Tim made very little each game. The mob was able to trap him into fixing games by intimidating him and his family. It’s a pretty good watch. But back to your point of the refs not risking federal imprisonment due to the money. Yeah the Tim D story backs that up.

 

[rambo2]

A ton of threads and posts are made each year on our forum about NFL referees. Most are complaints about what are considered inconsistent or inaccurate calls. Some fans even (surprise!) throw out elaborate conspiracy theories that somehow Roger Goodell and his dark minions at the league office are stacking the deck for our enemy teams and against us.

Whatever your opinion is either way is fine by me as long as your opinions are within the rules we agree to follow here. I thought it would be helpful to know some of the facts about refs and what they do.

Disclaimer: I’m not here to attack or defend NFL referees or the quality of their work. (I will say I think NFL officials call way too many penalties but I don’t buy any dark conspiracies against the Cowboys or for or against any other team)

This post is simply designed to show some links to articles about NFL refs and their training, evaluations and how the league handles all things related to officiating games.
SOME GENERAL FACTS ABOUT NFL REFEREES AND THEIR TRAINING:

• According to the NFL in 2023, there are 121 certified NFL referees working games. I don’t know how many are on the field vs the booth.
• There are 17 official crews each working NFL games weekly. At least 1 crew is floating because there can never be more than 16 NFL games per given week.
• From what I’ve read, the NFL requires each ref to have at least 10 years of officiating football games before working an NFL game. That includes collegiate and HS games. Of those 10 years at least 5 must include major college games.
• Each NFL game averages about 150 plays per game. Each play is analyzed by the league for accuracy of penalty calls or missed calls.
• Each NFL referee is evaluated by the league. The highest-graded officials work the playoffs. Those who have been graded as subpar during the regular season watch the playoffs from home.
• Officials with the poorest evaluations can be dropped at the end of the season. All are on 1 year contracts.

SOME INTERESTING LINKS ABOUT OFFICIATING IN THE NFL:

• A general overview: https://operations.nfl.com/officiating/nfl-officials-preparing-for-success/
• How officials are held accountable for mistakes: https://operations.nfl.com/inside-football-ops/rules-enforcement/accountability-fines-appeals/#:~:text=The NFL Officiating Department also,is cause for additional review.
• Do NFL refs have other jobs? https://en.as.com/nfl/do-nfl-refs-have-other-jobs-n/#
• From a 2022 Chicago article- How much do NFL refs make? https://www.nbcsportschicago.com/nf...oney-nfl-officials-make-working-games/182194/

This doesn't cover everything of course. But if interested, at least you can get into some of the facts regarding NFL refs.

One thing the league would want is Dallas winning the whole thing.

 

[Jarv]

If anyone is interested in penalty numbers by team and by specific infraction, here is a good site to follow that:
https://www.footballdb.com/stats/penalties.html?yr=2023

That site keeps data on called penalties form 2006-2023.

Offsides and defensive holding, we are almost double than the next team on the list for both of these penalties.

Great link by the way, thanks for posting!

 

[KingCorcoran]

I didn't see anywhere in there who does the reviewing. Is it an independent 3rd party or is it the referee union or the league itself? If it's the referee union then I would question the validity of the decisions/non-decisions. Self monitoring from organizations is almost always suspect. Same goes if it's the league office who does the reviewing. If their was some kind of league bias then them reviewing it wouldn't be valid either. I don't personally believe their is some league level conspiracy but there is definitely some one sided officiating occasionally, which is completely plausible considering everyone has personal biases. After all you either love the Cowboys or love to hate them

Fans, on the other hand, are unbiased in their perception of officiating. Fan are notorious for being objective.

 

[Pass2Run]

On top of what they earn off the field. In the 90s I did tax returns for an NFL official, Ed Coukart. He was also a bank president, which paid more. The notion that a guy like him is going to throw games for gambling money is the kind of stupid stuff I expect from fans on the internet. These guys don't need to risk federal imprisonment for money.

We went to lunch one day and I asked about Jimmy Johnson. His thoughts? Great coach who did everything he could to work the officials. Sounds about right.

The idea that humans aren't biased in any judgement is just brilliant...

You don't need a financial motive; to be biased.

Input impacts the output.

 

[cityochamps]

Nothing posted by the OP that most informed fans don't already know. The information left out is what most continue to hang their hat on; the NFL is the only professional sports organization that uses part time referees. Thier part time job primarily begins when pre-season begins. Bottom line is this, If the position became a full-time gig, it would allow for additional training and the opportunity to make the game even fairer as the officials would acquire more training and experience.

 

[Hennessy_King]

I was surprised to learn that the avg pay for an NFL ref is about $200k a year.

Yeh and theyre part time. Hocholi was an attorney for 9 months out of the year when he was a ref

 

[Creeper]

Refs are in a no win situation but often they call not what they see but what they think they see. For example, a defensive lineman gets blocked and goes to the ground. Sometimes refs call holding because they assume he was tackled not that he was pancaked. But if they don't call it and he was tackled then what?

In the Dallas Seattle game, Tyler Smith was called for a an ineligible player downfield penalty when the Cowboys were on the Seattle 2 yard line. Tyler blocked his guy two yards downfield when the guy broke off the block and when to Tyler's left to avoid the block. Tyler was just standing their two yards downfield when Dak threw a pass, While the ball was in the air a Seattle defender ran past Tyler but bumped him slightly as he was running towards the pass. The ref saw the contact and called the penalty.

The rule is an ineligible player can be downfield if he blocked or is blocked by a defender 1 yard past the LOS. Once he is downfield though he cannot initiate another block on another defender or move further downfield. Being downfield is not a penalty if he got downfield while blocking a defender from the LOS. Tyler did not initiate a second block or move farther downfield. He was just standing there and someone ran into him. I don't think the ref saw what happened but he saw what looked like contact so he threw a flag. The penalty didn't matter I don't think. I believe Dallas scored anyway, but the point is Tyler was not in the wrong but got called based on what a ref thought he saw.

And this brings me to my biggest beef about the refs. Inconsistency. Against the Bills, I saw Eagles offensive linemen downfield looking for someone to block multiple times and they were not called. In this case, the Eagles linemen went downfield on their own. You will see this on screen plays. But offensive linemen cannot go 1 yard past the LOS before the ball is in the air. When we ask about why the Eagles don't get called for holding we need to ask why they don't get called for anything.

 

[Creeper]

Referr-ing is hard, I can attest to that. My brother-in-law asked me to umpire in his daughters club softball team game’s because of my experience in baseball. It seems simple, call the right game as it seems. I had a whole new perspective from that side. It hits different when the microscope is on you in the heat of the moment. Whatever call you make will be challenged by someone.

I went to a kids league game to see my friend who coached one of the teams. It was summer and I was home from college. The umps didn't show up so he asked me to ump the game. It was just me behind the plate calling everything. I was a pitcher in school so I knew something about balls and strikes, but there are rules about interference and other stuff I was not well schooled on. Things went well for about 3 innings then wouldn't you know it, I am calling balls and strikes with runners on 1st and second, the pitcher throws a fastball right down the middle. The batter swings and misses, the ball pops out of the catchers mitt and on the backswing the batter hits the ball, a slow roller to second base. It was pandemonium after that. The runners are running. The fielders are throwing the ball all over creation, the batter is running to first base, and there I am wondering what the heck just happened. I wanted to drop the gear and go home but everyone was yelling about what the rule was and where all the players should be and whether it was interference because the batters equipment contacted a live ball, etc. etc. It took 10 minutes to sort it all out and get the game back on track. I realized how clueless I was about the rules of the game. Never again.

Then again, I remember schooling a high school ump on what the infield fly rule is.

 

[Sully]

Referr-ing is hard, I can attest to that. My brother-in-law asked me to umpire in his daughters club softball team game’s because of my experience in baseball. It seems simple, call the right game as it seems. I had a whole new perspective from that side. It hits different when the microscope is on you in the heat of the moment. Whatever call you make will be challenged by someone.

I have said this for a decade. I am a High School/Semi-Pro/Arena football referee and it is "easy" to be armchair zebras when you see replay after replay. Now, I will say that there are many calls that I question and say, I can make that same mistake as they did. Would love to get that pay. Being a 13 year referee, it isn't easy to make calls. My theory is this when I am one the field: If I have to question it is a penalty, I do NOT throw my flag. Allow the players to play. Fans are not there to see refs throw flags. But if you think refs are bad-- fine. But I say this, get off your butts and try refereeing your area PopWarner game and see for yourself. Coaches will scream at you for 75% of the time. Fans think you are keeping their little Johnny from the NFL

 

[SlingBoy]

If anyone is interested in penalty numbers by team and by specific infraction, here is a good site to follow that:
https://www.footballdb.com/stats/penalties.html?yr=2023

That site keeps data on called penalties form 2006-2023.

Must be something in the water in Pennsylvania. Stealers 3 offensive holding penalties and Fhilthy 4 ALL SEASON so far. Our Cowboys at 15 okayyyyyyy