NFL Rumors: New Officials Would Lead to a Chaotic Season

Roughly one year after the 2011 NFL lockout between the players and owners, an eerily similar situation is brewing between the league and its referees this year.

In an article by Alex Marvez of FOX Sports, we may end up seeing some new refs for the 2012 season:

"According to a letter obtained by FOXSports.com, the NFL has asked its officiating-scouting department to begin assisting the league in identifying potential replacements for the 2012 season. The move comes as the league and the NFL Referees Association have reached an impasse in labor negotiations."

New officials to the pro level would certainly be interesting. But then we wouldn't have the luxury of seeing Ed Hochuli flex his biceps when making signals. To that end, let's examine a few reasons why new refs equate to chaos in 2012.

Penalties

This is more so geared toward the NFL's rule-book, which is ridiculously long and it will take longer than a few months for the refs to grasp the entire document.

Penalties then will be varied as we'll see laundry errors more often than not. Whether it's because the yellow was thrown despite a clean play or was not thrown after a clear penalty, this will happen with new refs.

Take into consideration all the rule changes and it only becomes a more confusing issue. All the referees currently in the league have the experience and are acclimated to recognizing plays faster and even they still make mistakes.

Regardless of what referee position we're talking about, the speed of the NFL alone will create problems for the newbies in the zebra striped outfit.

Play Reviews

Pro football games already take long enough as it is, and new refs also mean longer games. Combine every scoring play being reviewed with the number of close calls and new refs will be a little more cautious.

Not that being more cautious is a bad thing because getting the call correct is most important. Still, the reviews then explaining the reasoning for the decision to the coaches will take additional time.

Then the rhythm of the game may get disrupted and ultimately more upsets will occur. Hence, a more chaotic season making the final weeks albeit exciting, quite stressful to boot.

And no matter how much experience a new ref may have at the college or arena level with replays, the NFL's rulebook on reviews alone will be a tough transition.

Game Pace

Obviously taking longer on reviews and focusing on play safety will affect the pace of each game. The most difficult part, as briefly mentioned earlier, will be the speed of pro football.

For any of the refs that would come in with no NFL experience, it will be a reality check by comparison to any other level of the game. The fast developing plays, size of the players and play clock all come together to form one quick-hitting sport.

Then include how explosive the majority of the offenses are, and how fast a team likes to move down the field and a new pro ref will have his work cut out for him to keep pace. There aren't too many broken plays in the NFL that turn into backyard football like at the college level or anywhere else.

New refs will see a lot of snaps and with the league in the midst of a pass-heavy movement, lots of possession changes as well.

John Rozum on Twitter.