NFL Football: The Most Difficult Sport To Officiate

The game itself has gotten faster, which necessitated the need for instant replay, but there is no doubt that it is the most difficult. There are almost too many things happening on every play.

You can have illegal motion, an illegal forward pass, pass interference, a personal foul, a hold, and a touchdown on the same play. If you compare the other major sports, there are not as many moving parts to keep track of.

Take baseball, for instance. The home-plate umpire for most of the game is focused on calling balls and strikes. Bang-bang plays at the plate and fly balls headed toward the foul pole don’t occur very often, so most of the time the home-plate umpire is dealing with the ball and strikes, and the other umpires are standing around. You can make a case for the first base umpire being busy because of the plays at first, but most games move along without any major intervention from the umpires.

With professional football, you know holding goes on every play, but the rules say if the lineman’s hands are inside, then they are fine. The interpretation of a lineman’s hands being inside could vary from crew to crew.

Every play in the NFL has to be scrutinized by the whole crew, whether there are penalties or not. Things happen underneath piles that have to be sorted out, in addition to the spot of the ball being so important.

For the NBA, it is easier to keep track of 10 players on a basketball court than it is to keep track of 22 players on a football field. I am not saying the NBA and NHL are easy, just easier than the NFL. As far as having the most influence over a game, that has to be the home plate umpire.

If they give a pitcher like Tom Glavine, and Greg Maddux the outside part of the plate (really off the plate), then that will make the difference between them being effective and being almost unhittable, or being ineffective and giving up five-plus runs.

Most of the game of baseball is about the pitchers and the batters, which involves the umpire calling the balls and strikes. If they are calling a bad game with a wide strike zone, hitters will swing at pitches they normally wouldn’t swing at. If they are calling a tight strike zone, the hitters have the advantage.

However you slice it, the umpire behind the plate has a lot of influence over the game, but as far as difficulty goes, there is no doubt that NFL football is the most difficult. Sometimes they get it wrong, most of the time they get it right, but it is not easy (see the Motor City Miracle, Troy Polamalu interception in Colts vs. Steelers playoff game, Patriots vs. Raiders ”Tuck Rule” playoff game).

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