Simply pathetic officiating

If that’s honestly the case then make it a “going forward” rule. All new refs are full time and year round in training. And anyways, they didn’t seem to fear losing their best refs when they dumped all the ones that went on strike in 2012. Given the state of officiating do we really have any “best refs”? It’s a league wide issue, every single game has a poignant questionable call.

 

Haha, the NFL has a marketing opportunity here. They can "brand" the flags by putting logo patches of sports betting sites on them. "This defensive holding is brought to you by Bet 360"

 

there is always going to be some subjectivity no matter what. it's the nature of the game. but I would say blatent as obvious. jersey pulls, face masks, holding a WRs arm so he can't use it, etc. things that blatantly affect the game. Losing on a no call sucks. if they could review non calls, maybe players won't bitch as much for fake flags. maybe give the coaches 2 chances to challenge a non call, but have all calls be reviewed by a sky box

 

Maybe at this point in time, but if not now, in the near future it may be possible to have AI make the calls. The computer could flag potential infractions for a human to review and then relay that to a ref on the field. Yes, lots of kinks would need to be ironed out, but it would be possible.

 

I agree with how bad the officiating has become, that it's insane how teams are getting completely bailed out, and that they have too big an impact on the game, but disagree that personal fouls shouldn't be 15 yard penalties and holding shouldn't be 10 yards. IMO that isn't the problem, it's that the refs are calling too many ticky tack personal foul penalties and then aren't calling egregious personal fouls at other times. Holding happens on almost every play. I get that they're trying to protect the QB, but holding should set an offense back. If the OL didn't hold, then the QB could have taken a sack of at least 5-8 yards, and maybe gotten injured, or it been a strip sack and the defensive team recover the ball. Again, it needs to be called consistently until players stop holding. It's going to happen due to the CBA agreement that limits practicing in pads and live hitting and due to injuries, and backups having to come in an play. The biggest problem in the NFL is either that the officials are not full time, aren't adquately trained, evaluated and monitored or that the NFL is being dictated to by the gambling industry/mobsters.

 

Well that depends upon what you mean by "silently." Do they delay the game like other reviews? If not, what good is it? If they fined refs or fired them for egregiously bad calls, that would be one thing. I think the game is being influenced too much by the officials. I'd rather see the game slowed down and the calls be right, than the game kept up to pace and be wrong or one-sided. I think every penalty and every no-call where the CS complains should be reviewed.

 

So you'd rather the Jets continue to be screwed by egregiously bad callls? IMO I'd rather they get the calls right and stop influencing the game. If it causes some down time or makes games a little longer, big deal.

 

More reviews is dumb, especially for penalties

the majority of the time they go with the call on the field - right or wrong when they go to review. So it would just be wasting time for wasting time sake

 

I think blatant is self-explanatory. When an OL tackles the pass rusher or has him around the neck or a solid grasp on the jersey, it's blatant holding. IMO a blatant penalty on holding should be any hold on a player that is at the center of the action and not away from the action. So even if an OL only momentarily grabs the facemask or jersey of a pass rusher, it should be a 10- yard holding penalty because even that momentary grab, may have been enough to give the QB time to throw the ball away or get it to a receiver.

I don't know if they still do it, but there used to be a 5-yard penalty for in an inadvertent grab of the facemask, but a 15-yard penalty for an intentional grab and hold of the facemask. If that still exists, I think they could do that with some of the other penalties. I'd hate to do away with the automatic 1st downs on some penalties, because the offending team needs to get some kind of stiff penalty because otherwise that play could have been a game-changing play. For example, when a WR beats a DB has broken into the clear, the QB throws the ball, but the DB grabs the WRs jersey and prevents him from getting to the spot on the field where the ball is. If the DB didn't hold, the WR could have possibly scored a TD or at least had a big gain. 5 yards isn't nearly enough or a penalty, and even 15 yards would not be adquate if the WR could have scored a TD or perhaps had a 30+ yard gain. There have to be consequences when players break the rules. If not, then they might as well do away with all the rules and let the D drive ball carriers and QBs into the turf and let DL club ball carriers/receivers in the face when they come by them like in the movie The Longest Yard, and allow OL to tackle pass rushers, and bring back crackback blocks and just let it be a free-for-all on the field.

I disagree that the complexity would outweigh the benefit. Too many players are getting injured, and too many games are decided by inconsistent/biased officiating. A lot of money, and players, coaches, and GMs jobs are on the line. The officiating needs to be consistent and accurate. No one should be allowed to cheat or get an unfair advantage due to the incompetence or bias of an official. Gambling needs to be removed from all sports so that it couldn't even have a secondary on minor influence on games.

 

Sky judge fixes most. Someone could make the blatant calls within seconds after the play ends by looking at replay in a booth. Would almost instantly be able to catch bad calls as well as ones that were missed. Obviously will only have to look for penalties that immediately affect the game so they don't alter the ending.

 

I've been saying this for years. In addition, there needs to be a rating system whereby the officials are monitored and their job performance is evaluated. If an official blows so many calls in a season, he should be benched and put on probation, and have to undergo additional training. If when he comes back he continues to make bad calls, he is then fired. So the NFL needs to hire twice the number of officials that they actually need. Thorough background checks should be made on them to ascertain whether they have any connections to the gambling industry or have a large amount of debt, and their finances should continue to be monitored for large deposits. Any hint of impropriety has to be removed from the game. I think that most of the officials hired should be former NFL and collegiate players who weren't good enough to make it in the NFL, but who understand the rules and have the athleticism and speed to stay out of the way and get to the proper positions on the field.

 

"Blatant" is anything BUT self-explanatory

hell you needed 500 words there to explain it

 

Ed Hochuli was on with Francesca a couple/few years ago. He was talking about the idea of reviewing PI calls and PF calls. He said the reality is you very rarely have unanimous agreement on discretionary calls. It happens all the time where you’re hanging with your friends arguing a flag. What one person sees as a penalty another won’t, even though they follow the same guidelines and rules. It’s human nature.

The only “logical” way to combat that is by volume, meaning if there was a questionable call to be reviewed it would have to be reviewed by multiple people simultaneously, say like a conference room of 10 officials at the ready to review any call. They watch the replay and each votes their opinion on a call. 7/10 votes or more needed to overturn the call. And you need to get this done in under a minute

 

As opposed to the discretion of the fans?

 

less rules not more. and if you do make a new rule, make them clearer

the "horsecollar tackle" penalty is a good example. That was a safety-related rule that was newly created but it is pretty clear. Either the guy grabbed the back of his collar or he didn't. We don't have emotional debates about it.

"roughing" is about as useless a term as you can have in football. get rid of it

 

Except there have been countless horse collar penalties that replay showed was not a horse collar. How soon before releasing the collar before flag is warranted? Is simply touching the collar grounds for penalty? Forcibly pulling? How forcibly?

 

when have they ever thrown a flag for simply touching a collar though? 'tackle' is part of the rule

 

That’s not the point, conversely there have been many that haven’t been thrown because the ref felt it wasn’t the collar. What if it was more towards the side of the shoulder pad? What if he grabbed only the back of the jersey by the name? It’s all interpretive. Every single penalty in football is interpretive and subject to the human condition. Every instance can be seen by two different people who both steadfastly believe they are correct. Hell even false starts. You’re seeing more and more where the Tackles are getting away with moving a little earlier, yet no flag. There is no black and white with probably 90% of all football penalties. If you put 10 knowledgeable fans in a room and show them a play asking if it was a penalty you will almost always have at least one dissenting opinion.