FYI WIRZ: NFL Referees Are Keen, but It's Time to Kick Up the Zebra Standards

Fans might not always agree that NFL referees, known as zebras for their distinctive uniforms, do a great job on a busy playing field, especially when their team suffers a bad call.

Given that the game they officiate is fast contact at its best and that their role is actually a part-time job, they do excel at providing accurate judgment.

Fans of one NFL team have a playoff reason to ponder bad calls. The 2010 Tampa Bay Buccaneers got an official apology for a misdiagnosed penalty, but the Green Bay Packers got the Super Bowl. The Packers proved they were a playoff team once they were a part of the select 12, but they were late getting a position.

The 10-6 Buccaneers missed the playoffs when tiebreaker stats were applied, but had a referee not erroneously called Kellen Winslow on a pass interference penalty that nullified a fourth-quarter touchdown near the end of the season, the Buccaneers might have made the playoffs, and the Packers might not be world champions.

So much for “what-ifs.”

What might be more productive is the implementation of a sophisticated referee selection and training process. All teams could benefit from error-free officiating, but that is fantasy, not reality. Still, could there a better way to select, train and manage referees?

Roger Goodell, commissioner of the National Football League (NFL), commented recently to questioning from fans about referees.

“Our men do a fantastic job,” Goodell said. “Obviously, they’re going to make mistakes, but it’s a fast game. The game has changed when you see the quality of high definition TV and super slow-mo replay. You’re seeing a lot more as a fan than you’ve ever seen before, and virtually every time, it confirms that the official is correct. My hat’s off to our officials.”

Goodell makes a valid point. Referees don’t have a slow-mo replay in their brains, but is there a way to perfect referees? Can humans be tweaked to create “superzees?”

Say the NFL initiates an eight-year program that seeks to find and develop superior referees.

Applicants face a minimum age of 21 years and maximum age of 25 with a four-year college degree and must compete in a draft-type combine that measures physical and mental abilities to be qualified. The focus is to select the fittest and the sharpest, as in hand-eye coordination and cognitive dexterity.

The present NFL referee pay is about half or less of other top professional sports, but their workdays are far fewer. Officials who umpire in MLB work 162 games per season, and referees in the NBA work 82 games per season. NFL zebras work one game a week for four preseason games and 16 weeks for the regular season. In the NFL, officiating is a part-time job.

Say the NFL pays a starter salary that is half the salary of a top-paid referee during a four-year apprenticeship program that would include mandatory study and an exercise regimen, as well as field experience. Spring training camps with extra pay for those chosen could include more study of rules, development of communication skills and physical programs that would enhance their field tasks.

The superzees could earn journeyman status of the regular zebras after four to eight years of proven skills that should exceed annual pay now and include a retirement program.

The purpose is to get dedicated superior athletes to produce as good and better calls consistently decade by decade.

Commissioner Goodell explained the present method for retention.

“There are consequences to officials when they make mistakes,” Goodell said. “They are graded every single play of every single game. It is reviewed and graded from an officiating perspective on videotape in the week after the game. Those are used to determine a grade whether you qualify for the postseason-playoffs and ultimately, whether you continue to be an NFL official. If you don’t make the grade, ultimately, you won’t be an NFL game official.”

Another valid point, but that doesn’t mean no better way to train and retain exists or that roles expanded could be beneficial as well.

The game-time duties of apprentices could include laptop input to big screens that explain each rule used during flagged play. When an instant replay is in process, the rule enforced could be visible for fans and commentators. That display could help those who don’t know the rules like officials do.

It might take years to know if a concentrated program like this superzee proposal would function, but if set up in earnest and pursued vigorously, the results could be favorable to the game.

The NFL needs referees anyway. The right long-term program might produce better officials and fewer mistakes.
 
One superzee at the right time might have given the Tampa Bay Buccaneers the right call when it counted.

Fans for the other 31 teams could recite similar errors and would appreciate more accurate calls as well.

FYI WIRZ is the select presentation of sports topics by Dwight Drum @ Racetake.com. Quotes and information derived from NFL media sources and press releases.

Photo credit: Dwight Drum @ Racetake.com