NFL Officiating this year sucks

[BackAgain]

Yes. I’m a home team rooter. My home team is in my old State. It is the only NFL team actually in the formerly great State of New York. The Bills.

They played today. A very good game. Very close. They lost in OT. But …

The refs blew several calls. And they almost certainly cost the Bills the win.

I’ve seen many other games this season where the refs seem to be ignoring the real fouls, etc. but they also throw too many bullshit nit picky flags.

Someone in the NFL should rein in the officiating.

 

[MarathonMike]

Refs and Umpires will always blow calls. But they should NEVER decide the outcome of a game. So that means that late in the game, unless the foul is TOTALLY OBVIOUS, don't call the foul.

 

[Mr. Friscus]

Yes. I’m a home team rooter. My home team is in my old State. It is the only NFL team actually in the formerly great State of New York. The Bills.

They played today. A very good game. Very close. They lost in OT. But …

The refs blew several calls. And they almost certainly cost the Bills the win.

I’ve seen many other games this season where the refs seem to be ignoring the real fouls, etc. but they also throw too many bullshit nit picky flags.

Someone in the NFL should rein in the officiating.

As far as I know the NFL, a billions of dollars massive league... still has part-time refs.

They fuck up ALL the time. It's so frustrating. Hey NFL and Roger Godell, Use your BILLIONS (... that's billions with "B") to hire full time refs who are simply dedicated to officiating the sport.

 

[Mr. Friscus]

Refs and Umpires will always blow calls. But they should NEVER decide the outcome of a game. So that means that late in the game, unless the foul is TOTALLY OBVIOUS, don't call the foul.

Umpires can be neutralized by hopefully going to laser strike zone technology.

NFL officiating is far less objective and far more subjective.

 

[MarathonMike]

Umpires can be neutralized by hopefully going to laser strike zone technology.

NFL officiating is far less objective and far more subjective.

I want sooooo bad for a laser based strike zone in baseball. OMG. I can remember a half dozen important games this year where an Umpire literally handed the game to the other team on a TERRIBLE 3rd strike call or non-call.

 

[two_iron]

I saw a lot of bad refereeing this weekend... college level too.

It ruins the game. I'm glad I was weened off football a long time ago.

 

[Synthaholic]

I've been calling for robot umps in baseball for years now. The NFL would seem to be an even easier challenge. Like Tennis, the lines are determinative, and robots are good at that type of precision.

 

[Mr. Friscus]

I've been calling for robot umps in baseball for years now. The NFL would seem to be an even easier challenge. Like Tennis, the lines are determinative, and robots are good at that type of precision.

Easier? No. Most football issues aren’t a line call like in tennis or a strike zone in baseball.

NFL and NBA are tougher to navigate

 

[Blaster]

Holding calls on offense are ridiculous. They hold all the time.

 

[Mr. Friscus]

Holding calls on offense are ridiculous. They hold all the time.

It’s certainly tough to get it completely right in real time, but my issue is with holding calls that don’t end up affecting the play. Let those go.

 

[candycorn]

Yeah, the refereeing is probably as bad as I’ve ever seen it...from college all the way up to the pros. Key word being “seen it”.

I think an important thing to ask though is whether has gotten worse or has it always been bad and we just happen to notice it more because they have the drone cam, 25 cameras on every game, social media highlighting bad calls and of course the challenge that coaches now have to further amplify what they think are bad calls.

It probably hasn’t degraded all that much to be honest. Lester Hayes used to have so much stick-um on him that you wondered how much of his uniform was covered in the dirt from the Coliseum vs how much of it was stick-um. By the end of a game, I think it was Mark Clayton was covered in this gunk Hayes had pressed him so much. You’re not supposed to touch the receiver to the point to where you can transfer something that is inherently sticky from your body to his.
What we see are two things. First the inconsistency of the referees. Superstars get the calls; other players don’t. Mahomes (figuratively speaking) can do no wrong. Brady could do no wrong. The back-up linebacker for the Colts? He could get flagged for tying his cleats wrong. The second thing--and I think this is what really makes us think it is so much worse...there are too many damn talking heads highlighting anything that may be questionable. What’s the old saying about a tree falling in the forest? It doesn’t make a sound if nobody hears it. Well, if the tree fell and there were enough ex jocks commenting on it; you’d think the whole forest fell. Pre-game shows have like eight commentators.

And this is before you even get to the 2 or 3 guys in the booth or the people the six above interview.

I think the discussion is healthy for the sport though. Refs need to be recruited out of college just like players. Injured college athletes and players who couldn’t make a squad. They need to be able to keep up with Tereek Hill.