NFL Officials Are There to Enforce the Rules, Not Help Teams Follow Them

Being an official in the National Football League is a thankless job. Make the right call, and fans will accuse you of having an agenda or over-officiating the game. Make the wrong call, and out come the swear words and the Mr. Magoo jokes.

However, when an official goes well beyond the scope of his duties, and actually helps a team in a manner that has a real impact on the outcome of a football game, that official deserves the barrage of criticism headed his way.

That appears to be exactly what happened during the field-goal attempt by Nick Folk of the New York Jets at the end of their Thursday night matchup with the New England Patriots.

Dom Cosetino of NJ.com was among the first to publicly point out what shall henceforth be known as "Kickergate," because all controversies must by law be called whatever-gate.

Either that, or we've just lost any ambition to be creative about that sort of thing:

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Thursday night, Jets kicker Nick Folk tried a 58-yard field goal on the game's final play. The try was obviously a longshot (duh): Folk had never made a kick attempt longer than 56 yards, and this one was blocked by Patriots defensive end Chris Jones. The Patriots won, 27-25, and the Jets got to slink back to Florham Park to figure out what to do, their season in ashes now that they're 1-6 with six straight losses.

Now, the Jets did plenty wrong and deserved to lose. Their season is a trash heap because they stink. But this isn't a good look for the NFL's officiating crew.

Check out what happened just before the ball was snapped. Patriots linebacker Dont'a Hightower approached the line of scrimmage and attempted to stand just over Jets long snapper Tanner Purdum. According to the rule book, this should have been a five-yard penalty. But instead, an official stepped in, grabbed Hightower by his right arm, and presumably told him to move over, which Hightower quickly did.

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You can watch the play for yourself below.

Sure enough, it appears that an official "moves" Hightower out of the spot that would have resulted in a flag. To the surprise of absolutely no one, this was greeted by cries of shenanigans by fans of the reeling Jets.

What was surprising was that Jets fans seem to be the only people bothered by this:

In fact, NFL vice president of officiating Dean Blandino stated very clearly that this is standard operating procedure for officials across the league:

Others were quick to point out that this doesn't just happen in the NFL:

The problem is this. On Thursday night an official went out of his way to impact the game at a critical moment in a manner that clearly favored one team over another. That should never, ever happen.

This isn't Pop Warner, or high school, or college. This is the National Football League. Players are paid millions of dollars to know the rules. Coaches are paid million of dollars to teach them.

I think they even have a coach specifically for special teams.

The officials are there to enforce those rules, not stop players from committing penalties. When's the last time you saw someone tell J.J. Watt he was lined up in the neutral zone?

Never, that's when. Partly because it's not their job, and partly because they're afraid J.J. Watt will mistake them for an actual zebra, his predatory instincts will take over and he'll eat them.

Of course, according to what league spokesman Brian McCarthy told Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, it was all done with the players' best interests at heart.

“That rule was adopted for player safety purposes, another good reason to help avoid violations in advance,” McCarthy said.

Given that the play in question happened during a Thursday game, that's almost funny. Almost.

Mind you, this was a critical point in the game as well. If Folk hits that field goal, the Jets go home winners. Folk had never hit from 58 yards in his career, but if the official minds his business and a flag is thrown, then Folk is looking at a 53-yarder.

Over the last three seasons, Folk has hit on 7-of-9 attempts from 50-54 yards out. I'm not saying he would have made that kick, but he had a real shot.

Also, this wasn't the same as a wide receiver asking a side judge if he's on the line of scrimmage. As Chris Chase of USA Today reports, if Hightower was unsure of his positioning there's an easy way to fix that:

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The onus needs to be on the player to line up properly and, if he’s not, he should have to seek out the official’s advice. It’s like when wide receivers check with officials before offensive snaps to make sure there are the proper amount of men on the line of scrimmage. That’s fine. But would an official shove a receiver onto the right spot on the line of scrimmage on his own volition? Of course not. So why should officials shove a defender out of the wrong one?

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Simply put, it was a place and time in the game where the officials' meddling had a huge impact on the outcome of the game, and once again that should never, ever happen.

Just do your jobs, zebras. Let the players and coaches do theirs.

Gary Davenport is an NFL Analyst at Bleacher Report and a member of the Fantasy Sports Writers Association and the Pro Football Writers of America. You can follow Gary on Twitter @IDPManor.