NFL

My interest in football waxes and wanes because of officiating and the league having greater agendas than just seeing which team is playing better.

It sucks knowing what these players put themselves through only to have things come down to a third party decision or lack thereof that can be as egregiously bad as possible and be played off as just the old "human error".

I get that there always has to be an element of human error to it all, but there are many ways the NFL could help clean up the officiating, and they simply don't do it.

I still think the problem is more the rules than the refs.

College refs are worse than NFL refs and yet big time college games are usually much less impacted by the officiating.

Look at the Michigan vs OSU game - the officiating was so much better in that game compared to the average NFL game from a viewer standpoint.

I vastly prefer how DBs are officiated in the NCAA - there are far less ticky tack DPIs and holds.

Should? Yes. Will they? No. The official's union holds all of the cards ever since the replacement ref fiasco.

Bluntly speaking the NFL doesn't care. Ratings are always great and they are selling merchandise hand over fist. The only way they'll consider changing is if they see revenue decrease or lawsuits are filed over games potentially being rigged by officiating for gambling purposes.

The solutions are all right there: hire them as full time employees, give the best ones a salary that beats being the FOX or CBS rules analyst, and utilize every bit of technology that eliminates errors fans see immediately during a replay.

Will they do this? Of course not, unless forced.

The bad ones don't get assigned playoff games so they kinda sorta are

I mean, there were a couple of fouls the Bills committed that were deserved, but when the disparity is that big and there multiple blatant no-calls then it's mind-boggling and really makes you question the integrity of NFL officiating, especially when it happens multiple times like when the Dolphins also played at Philadelphia.

Yes. Absolutely they should. Especially when they have 35754 angles of the replay, in 4k, and STILL get it wrong.

It's just a fact of life man. Refs fucking suck everywhere

To whom? The uneducated masses who have never read the NFL rule book? No. To the NFL? They already are. It's just not public because the NFL and refs know damn well the result would be a lynch mob and conspiracy theories abound.

And no matter what anyone says no one wants instant replay penalty calls. It'd make cricket seem like a short game.

If that was Jalen Hurts fleeing the pocket getting tackled with a hand near his collar would there be this many Eagles fans suddenly super in to the nuanced interpretations of the letter of the law?

You would think the horse collar rule was codified by Congress or something. "BUT THERE'S NO KNEE BUCKLING!"

"OH WHAT YOU DON'T BELIEVE WHAT THE REFEREE SAID POST GAME? I THINK REFEREES SHOULD KNOW! RARELY WRONG!"

"YOU SEE THERE WAS NO DOWN FORCE APPLIED BY THE DEFENDER'S HAND AND HE WASN'T BEING PULLED TO THE GROUND! THE HAND AROUND THE COLLAR WAS FOR SUPPORT ONLY!"

It's hilarious. Then you say let's assume all that is true, should it have been intentional grounding?

"THAT'S A TOTALLY SEPARATE ISSUE!"

Philly fans would (rightfully) be losing their minds if that series of events squashed a red zone opportunity.

They should, but should also be supplied with proper technology to make a proper call. They're using their old-ass human eyeballs for everything and refusing to make things easier on themselves.

refereeing isn't in crisis. you think it is because you have fewer meaningful things in your life now, outside sports entertainment, than you did before.

They should yes but will they no. They hide behind making the game slow which it already is but penalties should be allowed to be challenged but they just go conservative choice even if they get to vote so it is lose lose anyway I see it

How do you hold them accountable? It's an impossible job and they're still the best in the world at it. There's no one better to replace them with, and if you try to replace everyone who fucks up you'll immediately run out of qualified officials.

Making them full time officials, better training, in game video reviews, booth officials calling obvious infractions or overriding obvious bad calls, fixing the current rules to actually comply with physics.

Officials are held accountable. Maybe the author should have contacted the NFL on that subject instead of spending his time puking out this ignorant screed, including the bit about "part time" as if that makes a fucking case.

The only thing close to a valid point was about the horse collar non-call.

I want mandatory, minimum sentences

Yes

They absolutely should have called that but things were evened out imo due to the flop.