Ref Reform: NFL Officiating Needs Officiated

The men in stripes have done it again: every official is blamed by someone for a supposedly awful call in every game of every season since officials came into existence.

This season, however, the fans have good reason to be outraged.

The NFL officiating crews who are supposed to uphold law and order on the field have hoodwinked us all.

Instead, the officials became paragons for unlawful and disorderly conduct.

If they were in the military, these guys would be court marshaled.  In the NFL, they get a slap on the wrist, a lower rating, and their paychecks.

I don't pretend to know how hard their jobs must be.

It can't possibly be easy.  But some things just cannot be overlooked, especially when a few isolated incidents turn into a trend.

Every team's fans claim that the officials are against them.

It's a natural reaction to a yellow flag.  In reality, officials usually aren't favoring one team or another.  Most crews call a pretty even game.

The problem is that their accuracy has gone further awry than a Scott Norwood game-winning field goal attempt.

This year was particularly awful from Ed Hochuli's bungling of an obvious fumble in a week two match-up to a failure to review a key play in the Super Bowl.

No team has gained an advantage this season.

Everyone got taken to the cleaners.

Everyone knows about the big gaffes.

What some people don't see, and what NFL big wigs refuse to admit, is that these big gaffes are part of a larger problem.

The officiating stinks — every crew, with the possible exception of one, has failed miserably this year at some point.

Tim Carey, better known for his violent arm signals than anything, gets the sole exemption.

I've seen him officiate dozens of games, two of them in person. He's fair, accurate and he also allows the teams to play.

The rest of the crews should be reviewed. 

Ed Hochuli is the scapegoat.

When you blow a call that costs someone a game, you are in deep trouble.

Hochuli was in the headlines several times this year, none of which were for doing a good job.  The only official casual fans know by name, Hochuli is the most scrutinized when he errs.

Bill Carollo is retiring, but not before he called one of the worst playoff games ever.

Carollo missed obvious penalties by both the Steelers and Ravens in favor of calling lesser penalties. He also, blew a call on a Santonio Holmes touchdown, where Holmes made obvious football moves after securing the ball. 

Terry McAuley called a poor Super Bowl, too.

He didn't review a close play at the end of the game.

Regardless of whether or not it was later confirmed as a fumble, in a game that big, McAuley should have at least taken a look to be 100 percent sure. 

Those are just the first three examples that come to mind.

Mike Pereira, the man in charge of NFL officiating, is retiring. One has to wonder if he could possibly continue to keep his job if the officiating worsens. 

There are several problems with the way officials are handled in the NFL.  This needs to change.

Over-protection

The league office protects its officials from players and coaches.

No one is allowed to publicly criticize or question officials without risking a huge fine.  It's censorship at its worst.

A coach who can prove that the refs were wrong must keep quiet or he will be punished for being right.

The NFL needs to stop protecting officials. They aren't babies. They are grown men who should be able to take some criticism. It is not as if they won't be criticized anyway, but it is time they were allowed to be called to the carpet by the people they directly affect.

Hochuli's call could have cost San Diego a trip to the playoffs.

If it had, Norv Turner should have been outraged and should have called for Hochuli's head. But if he did, Roger Goodell would fine him.

Vague Rules

Say what you want about how detailed Ed Hochuli gets about his descriptions. I like that. At least someone explains what the devil is going on down on the field.

The problem that the officials can't control, is that the rules they enforce are as vague as possible.

What's wrong with some description in the rulebook?

How about we nix the tuck rule and the empty hand rule and write one rule that makes sense?

"A fumble by the quarterback means that the quarterback has lost control of the football at any point before the arm passes the body in a forward motion …"

Now that makes some sense. If the arm is behind the quarterback and ball comes out, it’s a fumble.

No gray area. No trying to determine intent — just a simple rule.

How about we finally get a modern definition of holding and get some uniform enforcement.

I've seen linebackers get taken down while pass rushing and not getting a call, but then a lineman is spotted with a centimeter of jersey fabric in his hands and the yellow hanky is in the air.

Bullies

Everyone argues for a call.

No one wants to be the guy who gets fingered for the penalty, but when an official doesn't throw a flag, listens to an argument, and then throws a flag he has turned his authority over to the player.

It happens a lot. 

"No sir, I can assure you he was holding my jersey.  Look at this wrinkle!"

FLAG ON THE PLAY!

SERIOUS Grading

We hear all about the way the NFL grades its officials and rates them.

Well, whatever they're grading them on, it doesn't seem to be on what happens in the game.

Maybe they're grading them on how good they look making a signal or how well the keep the ball dry during rain.

How about we start grading the officials on the calls they make and how accurate the calls are. 

For example, in the Super Bowl, Justin Hartwig was called for holding in the end zone.

Replays clearly showed Hartwig being bowled over by a rusher.  Max Starks and Willie Colon were holding.

Perhaps it was them. I'm fine with the result of the play. There was holding, but not on Hartwig.

Take some points off the grade if they can't at least get the jersey number right.  That's square one after all.

If you really saw a penalty, don't you think that you should know who you saw doing it?

Quarterback's are rated on every single aspect of their game. It's time we held the officials to that standard.

Central Review Station

Hockey seems to have it right.

They call Toronto, the replay official takes a peak, and then we have a call. Rarely is the War Room wrong.

Time to bring the War Room to the NFL.

Take the review power away from the field to someone who has an impartial stake in things. 

You can't tell me that an official likes overturning himself. Sometimes, there has to be some urge to say you were right just to clear your name.

I'd rather them overturn themselves or be overturned by a central station than be wrong. 

Start Punishing the Failures

When Pete Morelli blew an obvious call in the 2005 playoffs, there was talk that he wouldn't be running a crew anymore, but in 2008, he is still a crew chief.

How about some punishment?

When regular people fail at their job, they are demoted. When NFL officials prove incompetent, they are left where they are.

Morelli should not be an NFL crew chief. If you can't get it right in the playoffs, with the supposed All Star officials, then you can't get it right period.

The NFL officials have become a joke.

If Roger Goodell would apply some of his discipline to them like he does to the league's troubled players, we would not have this problem.

Rog, it's time to put your foot down and put an end to this.