There is an epidemic in
the NFL. It involves officiating of its
games. Every week now there seems to be
a game that is decided by an officiating call which is considered iffy at
best. Every week there is a call that
goes against a team which many consider to be the reason that team lost. I think there are two things working here,
causing what seems to be the worst officiating in NFL history. Is 2019 the worst year for officiating in NFL
history? I doubt it, but I wouldn’t bet
against it, either. Yes, officiating has
not been great and I think I know why, but I also believe their mistakes are tremendously
magnified so they look so much worse than they are. We have technology nowadays that can zoom in, slow things down to a snail's pace, and we have an angle on almost everything that happens. Of course we're going to see mistakes made more easily.
I believe there is a circle of bad officiating and scrutinizing happening right now in the NFL. To put it simply, referees are heavily criticized, causing them to retire early and be replaced by less experienced and knowledgeable officials, and those officials try their best but their mistakes are magnified and the circle continues. If we aren't careful, our current officials may decide that their position as an NFL referee is not worth it and we will be left with something like the replacement referees we had in 2012.
Imagine if all the older police officers in our country were replaced by younger police officers. I think there would be a lot more unnecessary arrests and pullings over of cars because these younger cops wouldn’t have the experience to know when to try to ticket or arrest someone. A similar thing is happening in the NFL right now where we are seeing more flags than ever, and some would definitely not be thrown by a more experienced official.
I don’t have any numbers, but what I have noticed is a lot of head referees retiring in the last few years. The head referee gets the final say and can override a bad call. The referees I have seen retire recently are Gene Steratore, John Parry, Ed Hochuli, Terry McAulay, and Jeff Triplette. Parry and Steratore were each under 55 when they retired. Why did so many retire almost at once? Because the job has become so stressful and demanding that they know for the sake of their mental health to not do it anymore. I don’t know how much they get paid, but whatever it is isn’t worth the stress and pressure those guys go through. Also, a few of these former referees (Steratore, Parry, and McAulay) were able to get positions as "Rules Analysts" with different television networks that broadcast NFL games. Sounds like a much more cush job than being a head referee.
Thus, we stand with a bunch of newer head referees in today’s game. It wouldn’t surprise me to find out a lot of the other referees, judges, and umpires have retired as well. The NFL does a good job of keeping it quiet; they don’t want people to know their officiating crews don’t have a ton of experience. Fans are screaming for these officials to be held accountable, but if the NFL suspended or fired officials for a bad call or two, they wouldn’t have enough to cover their games, not to mention no one would want to referee the games anymore. If any of us NFL fans were given the training and had to referee a game, I guarantee we’d not only do worse but we’d quit within a week or two.
It’s unfortunately going to be a series of growing pains we’ll have to go through while these officials gain experience. I haven’t even mentioned the constant rule changes and BS these officials have to put up with. Officials are now being challenged for their judgment calls. The replay officials in New York, led by former referee Al Riveron, are becoming infamous for not overturning the pass interference calls when it seems like they should. The reason behind this is twofold: One, they are trying to support their officials unless they clearly made a mistake, and two, I don’t think they particularly like overturning a judgment call. When they overturn a pass interference call, they are telling the referee that made that call that their judgment is off, whereas overturning other calls like catches is them telling the referee he just missed it. I for one hope they take away the ability to challenge pass interference next year or have an independent person or party decide.
The least we can do as fans is to be a bit more forgiving. Don’t get me wrong, I hate bad officiating as much as anybody. We can all remember bad calls in games our team lost. For me as a Seahawks fan, I remember Super Bowl XL all too well. What I don’t remember are bad calls against my Seahawks in games we won. I know there are plenty, but I don’t remember them, because they didn’t impact the outcome of the game. We focus on these calls and remember them for eons because they have the unfortunate distinction of impacting a game late and seeming to cause our team to lose. I’d also like to point out that it doesn’t seem like too many calls cost the Patriots games. They don’t ever seem to be on the wrong side of one that costs them the game. But that is because they never put themselves in that position. They usually play well enough that bad officiating calls that go against them don’t impact whether or not they win.
What I have noticed is that we tend to focus on the negative calls and forget the ones that went in our favor. Referees are certainly not perfect because they are only human. And NFL football is an immensely complicated game that happens very fast and requires officials to have the ability to focus on multiple things at once. I know NFL referees make really bad calls that make us call them names like idiot, moron, among other insults that attack their intelligence. I’m guilty of that. But these guys are not idiots, in fact they’re probably smarter than most of us. What they are are men put in a difficult position because of their love for the game of football.
I do think, however, something needs to be changed. The training process for officials, for one, maybe. I think they should go through a heavy amount of training each offseason. Also, I’m not huge on Al Riveron being the senior vice president of officiating for the NFL. They need someone in that position that will make the right call, even if the video evidence isn’t entirely clear. Perhaps with technology advancements we can get more accurate shots of the action and perhaps even data.
We’re in a rough patch right now, I won’t lie. The officiating in the NFL has never been as criticized and judged as it is now. We just need to get through it. I’m a positive-outlook kind of person, so I think officiating will get better over time, and then we can finally relax and enjoy games. We just need to be patient and understanding until it does, and also realize it's just a game for most of us.
I believe there is a circle of bad officiating and scrutinizing happening right now in the NFL. To put it simply, referees are heavily criticized, causing them to retire early and be replaced by less experienced and knowledgeable officials, and those officials try their best but their mistakes are magnified and the circle continues. If we aren't careful, our current officials may decide that their position as an NFL referee is not worth it and we will be left with something like the replacement referees we had in 2012.
Imagine if all the older police officers in our country were replaced by younger police officers. I think there would be a lot more unnecessary arrests and pullings over of cars because these younger cops wouldn’t have the experience to know when to try to ticket or arrest someone. A similar thing is happening in the NFL right now where we are seeing more flags than ever, and some would definitely not be thrown by a more experienced official.
I don’t have any numbers, but what I have noticed is a lot of head referees retiring in the last few years. The head referee gets the final say and can override a bad call. The referees I have seen retire recently are Gene Steratore, John Parry, Ed Hochuli, Terry McAulay, and Jeff Triplette. Parry and Steratore were each under 55 when they retired. Why did so many retire almost at once? Because the job has become so stressful and demanding that they know for the sake of their mental health to not do it anymore. I don’t know how much they get paid, but whatever it is isn’t worth the stress and pressure those guys go through. Also, a few of these former referees (Steratore, Parry, and McAulay) were able to get positions as "Rules Analysts" with different television networks that broadcast NFL games. Sounds like a much more cush job than being a head referee.
Thus, we stand with a bunch of newer head referees in today’s game. It wouldn’t surprise me to find out a lot of the other referees, judges, and umpires have retired as well. The NFL does a good job of keeping it quiet; they don’t want people to know their officiating crews don’t have a ton of experience. Fans are screaming for these officials to be held accountable, but if the NFL suspended or fired officials for a bad call or two, they wouldn’t have enough to cover their games, not to mention no one would want to referee the games anymore. If any of us NFL fans were given the training and had to referee a game, I guarantee we’d not only do worse but we’d quit within a week or two.
It’s unfortunately going to be a series of growing pains we’ll have to go through while these officials gain experience. I haven’t even mentioned the constant rule changes and BS these officials have to put up with. Officials are now being challenged for their judgment calls. The replay officials in New York, led by former referee Al Riveron, are becoming infamous for not overturning the pass interference calls when it seems like they should. The reason behind this is twofold: One, they are trying to support their officials unless they clearly made a mistake, and two, I don’t think they particularly like overturning a judgment call. When they overturn a pass interference call, they are telling the referee that made that call that their judgment is off, whereas overturning other calls like catches is them telling the referee he just missed it. I for one hope they take away the ability to challenge pass interference next year or have an independent person or party decide.
The least we can do as fans is to be a bit more forgiving. Don’t get me wrong, I hate bad officiating as much as anybody. We can all remember bad calls in games our team lost. For me as a Seahawks fan, I remember Super Bowl XL all too well. What I don’t remember are bad calls against my Seahawks in games we won. I know there are plenty, but I don’t remember them, because they didn’t impact the outcome of the game. We focus on these calls and remember them for eons because they have the unfortunate distinction of impacting a game late and seeming to cause our team to lose. I’d also like to point out that it doesn’t seem like too many calls cost the Patriots games. They don’t ever seem to be on the wrong side of one that costs them the game. But that is because they never put themselves in that position. They usually play well enough that bad officiating calls that go against them don’t impact whether or not they win.
What I have noticed is that we tend to focus on the negative calls and forget the ones that went in our favor. Referees are certainly not perfect because they are only human. And NFL football is an immensely complicated game that happens very fast and requires officials to have the ability to focus on multiple things at once. I know NFL referees make really bad calls that make us call them names like idiot, moron, among other insults that attack their intelligence. I’m guilty of that. But these guys are not idiots, in fact they’re probably smarter than most of us. What they are are men put in a difficult position because of their love for the game of football.
I do think, however, something needs to be changed. The training process for officials, for one, maybe. I think they should go through a heavy amount of training each offseason. Also, I’m not huge on Al Riveron being the senior vice president of officiating for the NFL. They need someone in that position that will make the right call, even if the video evidence isn’t entirely clear. Perhaps with technology advancements we can get more accurate shots of the action and perhaps even data.
We’re in a rough patch right now, I won’t lie. The officiating in the NFL has never been as criticized and judged as it is now. We just need to get through it. I’m a positive-outlook kind of person, so I think officiating will get better over time, and then we can finally relax and enjoy games. We just need to be patient and understanding until it does, and also realize it's just a game for most of us.
