The De-Evolution of NFL Referees

Still cannot understand why they won't use the booth review like the NCAA. Far superior system.
Riveron should have been fired right after he blatantly abused the PI review last year. The owners implemented the change. He works for the owners. If you ignore the owners, you should be fired. Either that, or the owners were placating the Fans(N.O. especially) and told him to ignore it was much as possible so they could get rid of the rule after the season.....Where was the media on that?

A sky judge or whatever you want to call it so that someone can overrule blatant incompetence.

Each of the calls highlighted in the video could have gone either way..we as Giant fans for instance were very pissed when ODB Jrs catch against the Patriots was not ruled a TD catch, but that catch/non catch could still be in this video if it WAS ruled a TD, making an argument for the other side.....who among us as Giant fans thought that Dez Bryant actually did make that catch against Green Bay? Not many I would guess, but it is still in the video

They are tasked with the impossible......wrap a written rule made up of text written and documented, prior to something happening on the field that could address any possible scenario that happens in the fraction of a second, before it happens.

It's way too subjective. Instant replay, Ultra HD digital content and modern technology (like being able to simulate, or extrapolate, 3D, from any point of view has only magnified what we never saw before....this combined with the huge rulebook makes this impossible. The NFL has arrived at a point of no return.

I mean it only gets worse as time goes on...in the future, once technology can determine if there was cellular contact between a players jersey and the football, we are really in trouble, but my guess is, unfortunately, that the NFL will literally self regulate itself until its slow unavoidable death. I hope I am wrong

If the rules are to be enforced in slo-motion, it can't be done accurately by humans. It has to be done automatically and electronically, instead.

At the moment this is not possible. However, with some innovations in technology and with the expenditure of funds for research, it CAN be done. Unfortunately, innovation is not a strong suit of the NFL and the lords of football really don't want to spend money on research because those expenses get subtracted from their profits.

In any case, don't blame the refs. There are only 7 of them watching 22 guys who have no incentive NOT to break the rules if they can get away with it.

Would it help to say slo-mo can only be used for non-judgement calls, i.e. whether toes were inbounds or not, whether the ball touched the ground, and whether time ran out before the ball was snapped, etc.?

For judgement calls, the plays would need to be reviewed at regular speed.

You're right. It's too broken to fix. They need to scrap the current rule book and rewrite it. And intensively train brand new referees and scrap the current ones. They all are terrible.

I was debating starting a stand-alone thread because of this:https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/28/sports/football/nfl-referees-perry-fewell.htmlThe narrator in Klaatu's media said changes are likely coming soon, with Riveron at the center of many of the charges of dysfunction and lack of transparency re. NFL refs.

Quote:

Vincent said the swirl of problems made him realize that the job of running the officiating department was “too large for one person,” so he split it into four parts. He hired Fewell, known as a disciplined leader, to run the department day to day and to speak with the news media, the owners, the coaches and the league’s broadcast partners.

I don't know what that sounds like to you: notwithstanding the Tom Coughlin and Osi Umenyiora quotes in the story re. Fewell's honesty, openness, and forthrightness, Fewell's position sounds like a more 'credible' person running interference for the NFL's mishaps and gaffes.

Quote:

Still, part of Fewell’s job will be the uncomfortable task of explaining officiating decisions to the news media, broadcasters and aggrieved coaches.

And Riveron, well, his portfolio has been reduced to, wait for it:

Quote:

As the senior vice president of officiating the last three seasons, Riveron ran all aspects of the department, including introducing a centralized replay model, evaluating and developing officials, and explaining rules and officiating decisions to the media. Riveron will now focus solely on the league’s replay review process.

I found this quote, regarding the shelving of the rule permitting challenges to pass interference, the implementation of which was worse than the evil sought to be ameliorated, hilarious:

Quote:

The results of the new review process were underwhelming, with only a fraction of the challenges leading to overturned calls. No team proposed extending the pass-interference reviews to this coming season. “That dies a natural death,” Rich McKay, the chairman of the competition committee, said in a SiriusXM interview this month. “We were trying to apply something that we’ve been wary about,” he added, “putting a totally subjective play into replay.”

Yeah, no sxxt the results were underwhelming, with Riveron, Goodell, and the protectors of the evolutionary order determined not to subject the refs to greater scrutiny in one of the areas most in need of it.

and overly technical rule book.

In comment 14913718 Victor in CT said:

Quote:

and overly technical rule book.

While the overly technical rule book is a culprit, the refs have enough trouble with the mundane rules to not get a pass. Even with replay they manage to get the call wrong and that is the problem. MLB gets just about every call correct through replay. NFL, meh. It seems the zebras are more interested in protecting each other than the game.

In comment 14913718 Victor in CT said:

Quote:

and overly technical rule book.

I agree this is a huge part of the problem and this is seen clearly in the Dez none catch play. By the rules, no catch was right call but by the spirit of the game that was a great catch and a TD. Calls will always be subjective and this is why the replay is a poor adjudicator as the camera only ever give another subjective view.

The refs on the field are part of the game and they will always be the best judge of intent and “spirit of the game”. An additional ref in a skybox at the game with access to the various angles could advise the ref on the field. Make the rules more simple and give officiating back to the officials on the field.

in Klaatu's OP, did you see the 'conditioning' exercises the refs were 'put through'? Hilarious, they could barely slide step across the field. They would never have been invited to the Combine.

I had difficulty agreeing with both the Dez and OBJ calls.

would be to put a chip ( or 2) in the football. This would eliminate the subjective call as to whether or not the ball has broken the plane of the goal line.

interesting, but isn't a chip going to have the same issues as visual confirmation? All those bodies and equipment over, under, around, and through the ball (to quote an old Winston Cigarettes commercial), will the electronics pierce those?

I'm no electronics expert but I have to believe it would be easily accomplished with the technology that's out there. If I can converse on a cell phone under a tree canopy deep in the Adirondacks, a traceable chip in a stadium seems do-able, regardless of piles of players.