The Official Officating Thread

AubHawk71

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JK, JK, I don't hold myself in that high of a regard. However, this is a brain dump that I hope will inspire some great ideas. I will steal Peter King's "10 things I think I think" template and proceed. I don't claim to have the answers. Please contribute.

1. Really liking the turnaround on the "What is a catch?" this season, erring on the side of it more often being a catch than not. Subjectively it has made for much more fun games regardless of who I'm rooting for, and keeps the momentum moving. Kudos NFL!

2. Also like the toning down of upstairs/New York officiating reviews. I don't watch football for a legal appeals aspect to the higher court. Keeps the game moving, and overturning calls on the field was getting so tedious. Double kudos NFL!

3. Roughing the passer. Gotta keep the superstars safe and also the concussion issue is big right now. Part PR on the NFL's side, but hopefully it will even out over time. Making Clay Matthews the sacrificial goat early on was a bit heavy handed. Which makes me feel manipulated. Which brings me to:

4. We are talking too much about the officiating. Whether it's a reality TV/pro wrestling move to get people emotionally involved, or grandstanding on the officials' part (Let's face it, nobody goes on nat'l TV to play the part of supreme hall monitor out of pure duty to honesty and integrity), cut back on the drama. I know it's there because:

5. Runaway games lose eyeballs, which lose advertising revenue because live sports are the last bastion of traditional TV dollars. Don't patronize us NFL.

6. Complaining about bad calls ESPECIALLY at key moments is not whining. The Hawks basically got shutdown in OT for reasons one can only speculate. I wasn't that happy with the Wagner channeling Chancellor jump/kick block last week. Make up call? Which begs the question:

7. Why are 49er fans coming to the Hawks.net to troll threads about questioning the quality of the officials? Please tell me people here do not go and do that after a win on enemy boards. That just tells me you know you stole the game and feel guilty about it

8. Bring on the NFL refs as full time, fully accountable...employees? of the NFL. I like the idea of the post-game Q&A. At least give it a try. See above: Grandstanding -- with no consequences. 'I can't believe the ref is allowing this!' WWF.

8. Holding. Not sure league issue mittens are the answer (as suggested in another thread), but for starters ANYTHING not evenly remotely related to the play on field (ball 30 yards away) gots to go. And drop the penalty to 5 yards for starters.

9. Pass interference feels too much like a fabricated gun it and hope for the call to make it exciting call. 10 yards, maybe 15 tops. Spot of the foul or half the distance is overkill and way out of proportion to the crime. The NCAA gets it.

10. Last but not least. Get rid of kickoffs all together. Just put the dang ball on the 20 or 25 and be done with it. SO MANY FLAGS. Changing the kickoff team formation was a stop gap at best, couple that with nearly automatic holding or block in the back calls, and it's become pointless. We get it, concussions. just change it.
 
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AubHawk71

AubHawk71

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Ooh, can I have an 11?

11. Technology. Sure is fun having 150 cameras and microphones in the stadium, but then it just leads to slow-mo multi-angle micromanaging armchair officiation. Not fun. Not fun at all.
 

Sports Hernia

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Great post and great topic.

I’ll repeat myself.

The NFL has a severe officiating problem which they refuse to do anything about, which tells me they are happy with the results of said officiating.

They give folks like me ammunition for the “steering of games” at times argument when they fail to get rid of incompetent officials, and fail to publicly comment about the consistently of said incompetentcy on a regular basis.

If the NFL wants to fix their officiating problem.

1. LESS FLAGS!!!!! Over officiated games kill the flow of the game. Only call obvious infractions, if you think “you may have seen something” don’t throw a flag, if the infraction was away from the play and it’s not an obvious unsportsmanlike penalty don’t throw a flag.

2. More quick group discussions on every flag to make sure an obvious infraction happened. This seems like it goes against my first point but if the first point is followed this will be fine.


3. Streamline and dumb down the rulebook, and get rid of obscure rules.
Get rid of “the emphasis rules”, get rid of vague and subjective language like “a football move”.
Make the rulebook easy for the average fan to understand. A catch for instance, should be easily defined.

Games need to be decided on the field, let them play!
The game is getting unwatchable due to the flag fest.
 

Hawksfan78

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Players and coaches get a hefty fine for calling out the refs. That needs to go also.
 

Sox-n-Hawks

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#12

Require the Head Official to participate in a press conference.
 
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AubHawk71

AubHawk71

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Hmm, CBS had a stat shot 9n the head Ref's offish record for the season. Stats!
 
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