'Sky Judge' Official Is a No-Brainer for the NFL

In the third quarter of Sunday's Alliance of American Football game between the San Antonio Commanders and the Birmingham Iron, San Antonio defensive back Duke Thomas laid an unnecessary late hit on defenseless Birmingham wide receiver Tobias Palmer.

The eight officials on the field missed the call. 

In the NFL, where penalties generally aren't reviewable, Thomas would have gotten away with a dirty play, and his team wouldn't have been penalized even after the viewing audience was exposed to instant replays confirming that a personal foul was committed. 

In the AAF, an immediate review was conducted by an extra official known as a "Sky Judge," who in this case was able to quickly ascertain via instant replay review that a major penalty occurred. Without a long delay containing beer commercials and an official staring at a Microsoft tablet, a flag was thrown, justice was served and the game resumed 15 yards downfield on an important second-half series. 

With NFL officiating under more fire than ever following a season marred by blunders, there's no good reason why the league shouldn't adopt the same system—especially because the NFL already has fewer on-field officials (seven) than the AAF and the NCAA (eight apiece). 

To boot, sports betting is becoming increasingly legal nationwide following a 2018 ruling from the Supreme Court, heightening the league's responsibility to ensure that the product is as fair as possible for those wagering on it legally. 

Put it all together and this is a no-brainer. 

It's true that replay reviews are often painfully protracted, and it's fair to argue that the game needs fewer challenges and booth reviews in order to pick up the pace and retain viewers who have so many alternatives these days. 

And that's precisely what is so wonderful about the Sky Judge format. If anything, it could reduce or eventually even eliminate full-fledged reviews conducted by the NFL's officiating command center in New York by correcting calls before challenge flags have to be thrown or officials have to be buzzed.

The Sky Judge can make games faster and fairer at the same time, and without automation. In fact, the system would create more than a dozen new positions in NFL officiating circles. This is a jobs program, people!

Even without those added benefits, a video official makes sense simply because it's in the NFL's best interests to get as many calls right as possible. 

Courtesy of a proposal from the Baltimore Ravens, it's on the table for the competition committee to consider this offseason. And the head coach of that football team makes a compelling case rooted in fairly simple logic. 

Rob Carr/Getty Images

"I know as a coach, what's the worst spot to watch the game from? Sideline," John Harbaugh said at his NFL Scouting Combine press conference Wednesday, per Peter King of NBC Sports. "You see the least amount from the sideline. That's why you put coaches in the box, OK. So we've got all this technology and the fans actually have a better view of the game from an officiating standpoint than the officials do. So these clear and obvious mistakes that are inevitably going to get made it's not just one play in a championship game; it happens every single week, because the job is so tough and moves so fast and the angles aren't great. If we can put somebody up there in the box that has a better angle that can help officiate the game from up there, do that."

Harbaugh and the Ravens aren't alone. New Orleans Saints head coach and competition committee member Sean Payton sounded as though he'll support any proposals regarding the expansion of replay when talking at the combine; Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio reported Thursday that the NFL coaches' subcommittee recommended the addition of a video official to the competition committee; NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent said "there wasn't dissension" when said committee discussed it in Indy; and Fox Sports rules analyst and former vice president of officiating Mike Pereira has essentially endorsed the proposal.

In January, Pereira described his hypothetical vision of an NFL Sky Judge as a regular member of the crew who travels with his colleagues.

"Give him the ability to be on site in an enclosed booth with a technician, to look at the play on television in real time and correct obvious mistakes that are big plays and involve player safety and pass interference, and be able to correct some of this stuff," he told Steve Serby of the New York Post. "He's able to, in 15 seconds' time, correct a mistake. I think that's what needs to be done, quite frankly, to win back the confidence to a degree. It'll look a little strange, but it won't happen more than probably two or three times a game. It's kind of a fail-safe to me."

And really, neither the Ravens nor the AAF were the first to conceive this idea. It has to be viewed with a little more legitimacy after originally being floated by legendary late Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney, who suggested the adoption of a video official in the early days of replay, according to Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. 

So the proposal is well-backed with no obvious downside. Why wouldn't it be approved this offseason?

Of course, there's always a risk of unintended consequences, which is partly why the league is often so conservative when it comes to implementing new rules, regulations and policies, but it's hard to see what could go wrong here. 

Besides, the AAF is already playing the role of guinea pig, and the preseason would give the league a 65-game dress rehearsal to monitor and adjust if need be. 

When you watch an NFL game on television, consider how quickly you and those in your company can identify a blatantly botched call. It usually only takes a replay or two, and nowadays those are generated by the production team in about a dozen seconds. 

Chris Graythen/Getty Images

When the officials infamously failed to throw a flag for clear-cut pass interference on Los Angeles Rams cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman in a critical moment late in the NFC Championship Game in January, Fox offered two definitive replays within 20 seconds. 

With a replay official working as part of a well-oiled machined, that call could have been corrected well before Payton stopped throwing his justified tantrum and sent out his field-goal unit for the ensuing fourth-down play. 

And so the time has come for the NFL to make a drastic change. The sport has become too fast and its rulebook too thick for seven officials to effectively officiate it consistently. The chips are stacked against the men in stripes, and as a result they've become pariahs in the eyes of a lot of coaches, players and fans—all of whom are also victims of the league's obstinance. 

"We have great officials," Harbaugh added. "These guys are incredible with what they do. We've also put a lot of rules in place that have made it really tough on them. They've got a lot on their plate. So let's add an official, let's add two officials, let's put one up in the box, let's expand replay if we want. Let's make sure that at the end of the day the fans walk out of the stadium and walk away from their TV sets knowing that was a good, hard-fought, well-officiated game and the outcome is as it should be and it was correct."

With sports gambling going mainstream and that Rams-Saints disgrace still fresh, there has never been a better time for maligned commissioner Roger Goodell to apply pressure on the league's 32 owners to take a progressive step toward fixing what ails a league under fire. 

This very well could be a critical juncture in NFL history, and the Sky Judge is ready to come to the rescue. 

Brad Gagnon has covered the NFL for Bleacher Report since 2012.