NFL Replacement Officials: How Can NFL Teams, Coaches Game-Plan for New Refs?

Well, if you needed another sign that 2012 is indeed the year of the Mayan apocalypse, the National Football League has provided us with one.

After failing to come to an agreement with the officials' union (probably because they weren't negotiating), the NFL sent notice to all 32 NFL teams earlier this week that the same replacement officials who have bungled their way through the preseason will be screwing up calls in games that count beginning next Wednesday when the Dallas Cowboys face the New York Giants on opening night.

Not surprisingly this news was not received well by many coaches and players, with stars such as Charles Woodson of the Green Bay Packers bemoaning the state of the officiating, in Woodson's case in an interview with Jarrett Bell of USA Today:

"

They haven't been very good. That's the honest opinion. Before preseason started, I think you're optimistic. But it's almost like a young guy coming into the NFL. The game goes too fast for them. Now, could they go through a season and get better? Sure. But there's going to be a lot of bad officiating going on until they catch up to the speed of the game.

"

However, complaining aside, the fact remains that these "officials" (and they should get the quotation-mark treatment until they start getting it right) are going to be calling games in Week 1 at the very least, so the question now becomes how NFL teams and coaching staffs change their preparations to account for replacement officials.

I don't really know how much you can game-plan to overcome rampant incompetence (although I suppose that we could ask San Diego Chargers head coach Norv Turner, who's been trying for years), but I think there are a few steps that can be taken.

First, the more complex or intricate the formation, the better the chances that some idiot zebra will throw an unnecessary flag for an illegal formation that isn't, so as much as you may love that exotic gadget play you designed that's guaranteed to work, onto the shelf it goes.

Second, and this may sound unethical, if I'm a defensive-backs coach, I'm telling my players that it's open season on downfield contact on receivers. I can't count the number of non-calls I've seen on pass-interference penalties this preseason, and if the replacement "officials" aren't going to throw the flag, well then, it's not a penalty anymore, is it?

As an aside, pass interference had gotten too ticky tacky anyway, so maybe it's just karma.

Finally, offensive coordinators need to be ready for the flow of each game to be disrupted 137 times by bad ball spots that have to be corrected, umpteen conferences between crews each sharing a single brain and interminably long reviews. That's going to wreak havoc on teams trying to run hurry-up offenses, because it's hard to get a defense back on his heels if there are 11 minutes between each snap.

I have one other bit of preparation advice, but it's geared more towards you, the NFL fan, than it as at the clubs themselves.

Make sure your liquor cabinet's stocked, because this is going to be ugly.

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