NFL Reportedly 'Wants to See More Consistency' from Referees amid Recent Scrutiny

Officiating in the NFL has been criticized for quite some time, and detractors have only grown louder this season.

The Athletic's Dianna Russini reported on Saturday that the league is aware of the issue and hopes to see improvements from its referees going forward.

"This isn't a new issue, but the criticism seems to be the loudest it's ever been," Russini stated. "The league wants to see more consistency week to week from crew to crew."

Of course, referees have a tough job and mistakes are to be expected when it comes to subjective calls in a high-pressure environment like an NFL game. Still, there is much more at stake and more people invested in the outcome of games nowadays following the legalization of sports betting in nearly 50 percent of the United States.

Russini illustrated how inconsistencies in officiating have caused problems for head coaches.

"Many head coaches believe there is too big of a discrepancy between how different crews call the game," Russini stated. "For example, as one NFL head coach explained over the phone, 'Some crews call a very tight game at the line of scrimmage regarding alignment and false starts. Others tend to be more relaxed. In 12 games, Brad Rogers has called 39 offensive holds while Bill Vinovich has called 20. That's a big discrepancy.'"

It was also noted that the NFL has made an effort to improve officiating by distributing weekly videos to every official team representative to allow coaches to see how officials are being instructed.

However, that hasn't led to much improvement this season, so it remains to be seen what other avenues the league will pursue to help curb officiating mistakes.