How Does The NFL Fix The Reffing Problem?

So we can all agree that the refs suck at making the right calls. How does the NFL fix this? Is their a clear solution to fix the awful reffing that we've seen in the NFL the past couple years?

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Hawk-Lock":3rjrilf9 said:

So we can all agree that the refs suck at making the right calls. How does the NFL fix this? Is their a clear solution to fix the awful reffing that we've seen in the NFL the past couple years?

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Simplify the rule book. Roll it back 20 years and proceed from there.

Standardize the focus from referree team to referree team . . . some teams call everything they see, some focus on intent, some focus on impact. Make it the point of officiating to NOT call penalties unless they impact the play.

Get players and coaches on the rules committee.

Let the players play.

Like every part of culture, the problem hasn't gotten worse, but the coverage has. Social media, digital recording, HD broadcasting, blogging, 24 hour sports cycles all shine a brighter light.

That and fans have become babies.

I honestly don't think it's fixable. Simplify the rules? The blown calls the past couple weeks have been obvious plays that most high school refs can call. Things like resetting the play clock, blowing the play dead when a player goes offsides, obvious OPI. These aren't technical calls they are missing?

Does the NFL fire all refs and use robot refs?

I can't believe I'm saying this, but how about we just let them make mistakes every once in a while? It's inevitable in any human endeavor anyway. Refs miss fouls in the NBA and misjudge the strikezone in the MLB.

If I had to point to one thing that's likely turning off casual fans, it's the constant disruptions of game-flow caused by instant replay and overly abundant commercial breaks. I know we all think it's enthralling to watch 5 minutes of a ball moving one-inch as it hits the ground, but would it really be the end of the world if that was ruled a catch every once-in-a-while?

Agreed David.

It can't be perfect and the expectations that it should be are hurting the product.

That said, you could hire them as full time. Should help their efficiency

McGruff":1wp1lok6 said:

Like every part of culture, the problem hasn't gotten worse, but the coverage has. Social media, digital recording, HD broadcasting, blogging, 24 hour sports cycles all shine a brighter light.

That and fans have become babies.

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This.

They need to stop talking about it. They certainly need to stop the head of officiating from second guessing his officials during the game. You know what we call bosses like that? We call them d!cks. Why would you constantly be advertising and pushing the fact that you put out a flawed product? It is insane

Full time referees. They all have full time jobs and work 7 days a week during the season. Plus they are all traveling all of the time, get off work at 5:00PM, jump the redeye from Boston to San Diego, prep for the game, referee the game, fly back to Boston, get up early and go to work.

Related to the above, better training. Keep them all in a group, learning together instead of small groups here and there learning it slightly differently from different trainers.

Simplify the rules. Over the years, the rule book has gotten thicker, and thicker.

STOP changing rules and "intent" every season. Because that means the referees have to remember that something that has been a catch for the past 15 years of their life, is now not a catch, technically.

Like said above, add players to the Competition Committee. They already have coaches on there.

ivotuk":4bxlbvnm said:

Full time referees. They all have full time jobs and work 7 days a week during the season. Plus they are all traveling all of the time, get off work at 5:00PM, jump the redeye from Boston to San Diego, prep for the game, referee the game, fly back to Boston, get up early and go to work.

Related to the above, better training. Keep them all in a group, learning together instead of small groups here and there learning it slightly differently from different trainers.

Simplify the rules. Over the years, the rule book has gotten thicker, and thicker.

STOP changing rules and "intent" every season. Because that means the referees have to remember that something that has been a catch for the past 15 years of their life, is now not a catch, technically.

Like said above, add players to the Competition Committee. They already have coaches on there.

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I think you've laid out a track that would at the very least make officiating leaps and bounds better, maybe even make NFL officials competent.

Funny how fans can brainstorm on a forum and make a plan to fix one of the biggest problems in the NFL, but a multi-billion dollar company just seems to throw their hands up. I've said it before and I stand by my opinion, Roger Goodell is the worst commissioner in American sports today.

McGruff":1ecdosne said:

Hawk-Lock":1ecdosne said:

So we can all agree that the refs suck at making the right calls. How does the NFL fix this? Is their a clear solution to fix the awful reffing that we've seen in the NFL the past couple years?

Click to expand...

Simplify the rule book. Roll it back 20 years and proceed from there.

Standardize the focus from referree team to referree team . . . some teams call everything they see, some focus on intent, some focus on impact. Make it the point of officiating to NOT call penalties unless they impact the play.

Get players and coaches on the rules committee.

Let the players play.

Click to expand...

Perfectly stated McGruff.

What's happened over the past 10-15 years is everytime an owner gets screwed by a call in an important game they cry to the competition committee for a new rule. Tuck rule, Brady's knee getting taken out, Dez's non catch, on and on.........so every damn year there's 10 more judgement call rules that are not only confusing as hell for the refs to interpret, but they have to interpret in a split second with players flying around at 100 mph.

Enough already, simplify the rules and most importantly LET THE PLAYERS PLAY! Stop with the ticky tack nonsense calls.

Always, follow the money. Ref's are ---employees--- of the NFL. The NFL has for sure shown that they influence games through directing their ---employees--- to call games in a manner that influences the outcome to whatever the NFL agenda may be. The most obvious solution IMO, is to change the employers. The players organization or the owners are possible replacements.

The very fact that the NFL is a Billion dollar industry, why are refs part time? Why isn't their better accountability for refs, when they screw up, what, if anything currently happens (other than not working post season games)? Off season, full time refs could probably learn a lot more consistency by reviewing ALL games & calls made in every game of the season. Also, I've noticed that a lot of refs look really old and grey (looking like my age or older - and I'm 73), how can they possibly keep up with 20-something super athletes? You can't see plays if your out of position and many yards away from a play, and some of these refs seem to be frequently out of position and seem to get tired as the game goes on, probably due to their advanced age.

Maybe the best solution would be that the team owners should be the employers (sharing the cost of same @ 1/32 each, raise ticket prices by $1-2 to fund it if necessary)? ----> Employees are beholden to their employers after all is said and done.

Hire them and make them full time. In the off season they get training, the same training for all of them so that one crew doesn't call a game different than another. They should use actual game tape. The league needs to determine what it thinks should be called in every play they use as an example and then drill them over and over. Separation is in the preparation.

ivotuk":3j9u88cs said:

Full time referees. They all have full time jobs and work 7 days a week during the season. Plus they are all traveling all of the time, get off work at 5:00PM, jump the redeye from Boston to San Diego, prep for the game, referee the game, fly back to Boston, get up early and go to work.

Related to the above, better training. Keep them all in a group, learning together instead of small groups here and there learning it slightly differently from different trainers.

Simplify the rules. Over the years, the rule book has gotten thicker, and thicker.

STOP changing rules and "intent" every season. Because that means the referees have to remember that something that has been a catch for the past 15 years of their life, is now not a catch, technically.

Like said above, add players to the Competition Committee. They already have coaches on there.

Click to expand...

I really do not see how the whole "full time referee" fixes anything and what exactly does that mean? Is the assumption that the refs are to tired and this is why they are blowing calls? Will the NFL put a rule out there that referees can only work one job? How would they monitor and enforce it? If it is enforced, is it enforced for the whole year? If it is the whole year how many good refs do we lose simply because they cannot make a living on just the NFL salary? If it isn't enforced the whole season, how many jobs will let you take 6 months off to go work another job at the NFL.

What if the NFL gave them more money so refs would only work one job. Who decides what is enough of a living wage? Even if it is enough to make a living, some may want to make more. The ones who take the living wage may still not be top quality workers. People who are refereeing and working another job, in my opinion, are exactly who we want as refs. These are motivated people who are willing to work two jobs, one of which is thankless and is portrayed as the villain.

McGruff":2oj993yg said:

Hawk-Lock":2oj993yg said:

So we can all agree that the refs suck at making the right calls. How does the NFL fix this? Is their a clear solution to fix the awful reffing that we've seen in the NFL the past couple years?

Click to expand...

Simplify the rule book. Roll it back 20 years and proceed from there.

Standardize the focus from referree team to referree team . . . some teams call everything they see, some focus on intent, some focus on impact. Make it the point of officiating to NOT call penalties unless they impact the play.

Get players and coaches on the rules committee.

Let the players play.

Click to expand...

^This. The rule book is far to complicated. Simplifiy. Get the refs back out of the game action. A good ref is one who you rarely ever see in a game. We have far too many ref moments in NFL games today.

Also, I think that referree's should have the same threat of suspension and potentially termination for consistent bad performances. You never see this at all.

seahawkfreak":1jm2qiqg said:

I really do not see how the whole "full time referee" fixes anything and what exactly does that mean? Is the assumption that the refs are to tired and this is why they are blowing calls? Will the NFL put a rule out there that referees can only work one job? How would they monitor and enforce it? If it is enforced, is it enforced for the whole year? If it is the whole year how many good refs do we lose simply because they cannot make a living on just the NFL salary? If it isn't enforced the whole season, how many jobs will let you take 6 months off to go work another job at the NFL.

What if the NFL gave them more money so refs would only work one job. Who decides what is enough of a living wage? Even if it is enough to make a living, some may want to make more. The ones who take the living wage may still not be top quality workers. People who are refereeing and working another job, in my opinion, are exactly who we want as refs. These are motivated people who are willing to work two jobs, one of which is thankless and is portrayed as the villain.

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Ref's get paid more than most of us for working part of the year.

During the 2012-2013 season, the average NFL referee salary was $149,000. For the 2013-2014 the average NFL referee salary was $173,000. In 2014-2015, the referees earn an average of $10,500 per game (regular season, pre-season and playoff), which works out to $180,000 per year.

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http://www.celebritynetworth.com/articl ... ee-salary/

So yea, working full time year round would kill them how exactly?

davidonmi":1q0mo2xq said:

Instant Replay!

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And they can't even get that right.

- Simplify the rule book. Its as complicated as our tax code. It's ridiculous.
- Hire them full-time
- Do not mix up the crews in the playoffs

I would start with those 3. Human error will always be a part of any game, but you're asking for even more problems with the insane amount of rules these guys have to learn every year. I would also entertain the idea of having only players/coaches come up with rule changes. Get the owners out of it. Let the guys who actually play the game decide how it should be played.

Uncle Si":3l3nxqxj said:

Agreed David.

It can't be perfect and the expectations that it should be are hurting the product.

That said, you could hire them as full time. Should help their efficiency

Click to expand...

You would be looking at a lot of new referees. MAny of these guys have high powered jobs (Corporate exec, Law firm partners, etc.) If they had to chose many would keep their day job with very high compensations and if they like to ref, do it at the college level.

HawkerD":36b8gtcd said:

Uncle Si":36b8gtcd said:

Agreed David.

It can't be perfect and the expectations that it should be are hurting the product.

That said, you could hire them as full time. Should help their efficiency

Click to expand...

You would be looking at a lot of new referees. MAny of these guys have high powered jobs (Corporate exec, Law firm partners, etc.) If they had to chose many would keep their day job with very high compensations and if they like to ref, do it at the college level.

Click to expand...

Fine, at the rate they get paid, and for the job they do, you'd have a lineup of qualified people eager to do what they do.

I'd have to at least consider it . . .